For as long as RuneScape has been around, a disappointing number of players have sought unfair advantages by buying in-game gold directly off illicit sellers.
This is called Real World Trading, and the game's rules expressly forbid it: Rules of RuneScape
Real World Trading
Real World trading (RWT) means buying or selling in the real world, for real money or in exchange for anything of value, things that relate to Jagex accounts. This includes:
- In-game items
- In-game Gold (GP)
- Account names
In addition, paying someone to play your account for you is covered by this rule.
This rule-breaking doesn't just affect the player who's buying the gold. It creates a financial incentive for people who don't care about the game to flood it with bots and throw-away accounts to gather gold to sell. So, when legitimate players gather items to sell on the GE, they'll earn less because the market's affected by botted resources, and playing alongside all the highly visible bots is infuriating!
Our hard-working anti-cheat staff are being aided by analysts and other staff across Jagex to help them clamp down on the bots; that's addressing the supply-side. But we need to address the demand-side too, since the sellers only have an incentive to gather all this wealth because of those players who buy it off them.
Buying gold off a real world trader is already very clearly against the rules, but historically we've treated the buyers more leniently than the sellers when issuing penalties for real world trading. As part of our clamp-down on those gold-farming bots and the harm they do to RuneScape, we're now taking a harsher line against players caught buying gold from them.
If you're buying your gold that way, please don't expect to get away with just a warning; our agents will issue bans, temporary or permanent depending on the situation, even for first offenses, as well as confiscating items from the offenders.
Thank you for reading - and thank you for supporting Gielinor and its legitimate players by abiding by the rules as you play!