This Runescape phishing scam could leave you seriously out of pocket

Two male characters in armor fighting each other

(Image credit: Jagex)

Naive Runescape players are being targeted by a dangerous phishing scam that targets their in-game valuables..

Cybersecurity researchers from Malwarebytes have spotted a brand new phishing campaign that starts with an email to Runescape players, pretending to be from Jagex support, the company that built, and maintains the game.

In the email, the victim is warned that the email address associated with the account was changed.

Stealing virtual belongings

The email also says that while the username and the password for the game haven’t been changed (this is essential, we’ll get back to this a bit later), the change of the email means that any future changes to the credentials will go to the new address.

Further down in the email, the victims are provided with a button and a link, via which they can cancel the change. At the provided address, they’ll find a phishing site that looks almost identical to the legitimate Runescape login site, and whose domain is as close to the legit portal as it can be.

There, they can log in using their credentials (which haven’t been changed, remember?). Once they try to log in, the data is automatically sent to a Discord channel owned by the crooks.

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But that’s not all. The attackers have also come up with an “additional security measure”. After entering the login credentials, the users are also required to enter their in-game bank PIN number. And that’s where the real pain starts.

Runescape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, more than two decades old, and free to play. In it, players can obtain rare items, either through hard grinding, or through purchases - using real cash. They can store these valuables in their in-game bank, and even though it might sound silly to some, these accounts can grow to thousands of dollars in value.

If the attackers get their hands on the login credentials, and the in-game bank PIN, they can easily log into the account from their endpoint, transfer these valuables to another account, where they can sell them to a third party for real cash.

As usual, users are warned to always be wary of any incoming emails, especially those carrying links and attachments.

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Via: BleepingComputer

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.