The player mod scam is one of the most common phishing attempts in Old School RuneScape’s. On short for this scam the scammer will PM you to let you know that you’ve been selected to become a player mode and then they will ask for your account details so they can then hijack your account.
You might like
What is a Player Mod?
A player mod is a regular player who was selected by Jagex and who has been handed some tools to keep the community safer. They can mute and priority report other players in game who they witness breaking the rules and have access to various other communication means with Jagex and other player mods, such as special channels in the official discord server.
Player mods and Jagex mods icons
Player mods will hold a special icon or badge next to their name in game chats similar to how ironman accounts do. Their icon or badge is a silver crown while the Jagex moderators, who are Jagex employees, not regular players, have a golden crown next to their names. Anyone else who claims to be a Jagex moderator or player moderator and doesn’t have the specific icon next to their name is impersonating them and should be reported as such.
Legit player mod invitation
When Jagex invites players to become player moderators they always do it via the message center, not through PMs in game, nor via email. You can access your inbox from the lobby screen whenever you log in, and had you been invited to become a player moderator you will be able to accept or decline the invitation from the message center.
Clicking on the inbox will take you to the actual message center in your default web browser. There and only there you’ll be able to accept or decline the invitation to become a player mod, if you received one.
The player mod scam
The player mod scam is based on both the lack of knowledge or naivety of the players about becoming a player mod. It exploits two very basic social human needs of being acknowledged and of holding a status within a community. All scams exploit human needs and desires. Most other scams exploit other natural human desires such as greed or the desire to progress, improve and achieve something, the desire to satisfy one’s curiosity, or, arguably the lowest of the lowest, scammers who exploit humans’ fears.
Scammers will try to PM players randomly, either manually or through bots and scripts, and tell them that they have been chosen to become a player mode. I received such a PM and I wanted to waste their time, but I think I said something wrong cuz they never replied back…
Sadly, I was unable to waste more of their time, though I was keen to, but other players successfully managed to, and I applaud them. It keeps the scammers busy so they can’t target un-knowing victims. However, keep in mind that some of these scammers will use automated scripts to reply so you’re wasting more of your time than theirs. This RS3 scammer admitted that their messages are automated. the best course of action is to report them for impersonating a Jagex employee.
A huge red flag, besides not having a moderator crown (if they don’t have a crown it’s not Jagex…), is how they say “it’s 100% safe and secure”. Nothing is 100 percent safe and secure in life or RuneScape, and anyone trying to sell you that just wants to give you a false sense of security so that you feel safe to give them what they want.
It is also important to note how this RuneScape 3 scammer is answering a question he wasn’t even asked about why they are not getting in touch through the inbox (message center), and they say the reason is they want to prove the player is the owner of the account. Jagex will not do that, they will always and only contact through the message center, specifically as a security layer against people who want to impersonate them.
Player mod special world?
There is no player mod special world. This scam occurs in both OSRS and RS3 and the scammers generally sit in a RS3 world claiming they are in a special Jagex employees only world regular players can’t access. If you wanna play with them log in in RS3 and hop to their world. This can happen because the two games share the PMs and the friend list so you can message your friend who is playing OSRS or RS3 and see they are online.
After you agreed to become a player mod
After you agreed to become a player mod, the scammer (or automated script they are using) will send you a link where you need to fill in a fake application form. Do not go to their link and do not give them any of your personal information.
Players who wasted the scammers’ time!
Reporting the scammer
I was PMed earlier this year (January 2024) so this is still happening, but the more we all report them for impersonating and spread awareness especially amongst the newer players the more we take away the power from these scammers. To report them simply right click or long tap their name and click report then scroll down and select staff impersonation or press G.
