WARNING: A Newly Revised Scam Targeting Runescape Gamers

While this is something of a departure from the usual content of our feature articles here at SuperCheats, what is revealed in this article is very important, and fits in with the category of public service news that the editors here at SuperCheats have been encouraging the staff to cover in order to best serve our community, and gamers in general.

This is very important information, particularly due to the high quality of the scam and structure of its appeal, so we urge you not simply to read it, but to share a link to the article with every one of your gaming mates, because the more people that know about this, the less likely it is to succeed in draining the bank accounts of the gamers who it targets!

Considering the fact that the vast majority of phishing attempts tend to be rather crude due to the fact that they often originate among cultures in which English is a second language, and so tend to give themselves away rather obviously, the newest phishing scam attempt to crop up that is targeting players of the Fantasy MMORPG Runescape is actually quite well structured and even convincing.

Put it another way -- unless the recipient is familiar with legal speak or maintains an ever-present heightened awareness and policy of doubt -- chances are it will get them to click on the link included in the email, which would be a very bad thing to do!

Brand-Spanking-New Scam

The scam first appeared in its original form in June of 2012, though at the time due to the many spelling errors, and examples of broken English it seemed apparent that it was being copied from a 'suggested' message structure.

Its present form -- basically appearing as the same threatening email that is purportedly from a moderator named Mark on the Jagex Legal Team -- was received on 11 January 2014 -- and when the three examples we personally possess are compared side-by-side this most recently revised attempt is a far more effective presentation, with all of the errors that made the previous two examples easy to detect having been corrected!

The name signing the email we received is “Mod Mark” and purports to be from the Legal Department at Jagex Game Studios -- but we have seen other examples using different names, so it appears that this is very likely being generated from an automated phishing app that allows the user to simply fill in fields with specific information before it processes the list of email addresses provided by the user.

In this case all of the email warnings appear to originate from the publisher and developer of Runescape -- note our use of the word “appears” as that will become important in a moment -- but the use of a game mod title is one of only a very few obvious flaws in the presentation for this phishing attempt!

Seriously, the app that is generating this phishing and infection scam is really quite good, and it seems that the criminals behind this newest scam have come to appreciate how their previous examples of broken English helped to sabotage good results in their scams.

Of course Jagex is fully aware of the different versions of this scam that have been making the rounds -- you can see their official response on the Runescape Services website (http://services.runescape.com )

http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/forum..

Among the assurances that are contained in the official notice respecting the scam is the fact that Jagex has an established policy to NEVER email customers about any of the following:

Account Disabled

Account Intrusion

Account Suspension

Confirming a Change to your Email Address (if you haven't requested it)

Eligibility for a Free Gifts (unsolicited)

Issue of Infractions or Offenses (generally)

Macroing

Moderator invitations or applications

Password Expiring

Password Wrongly Entered

Real World Trading

Recovery of Password (if you haven't requested it)

Selling of Accounts

Unusual Activity on Accounts

Validate Email Address (if you haven't requested it)

Seriously if you are a Runescape gamer you absolutely should read the rest of this feature -- and if you are not, you should still read it since it can just as easily be applied to all other MMO/MMORPG titles presently active.

Before we dissect this newest version of the scam, here is the complete emailed quoted for the purposes of illustrating and examining its very effective structure: