If he has posted a lot in a short period of time, you should check the quality of his posts carefully - he might be posting just to fake activity!


* If he's been registered on Sythe for at least 1-2 years and has a fair amount of posts, it shows that he's dedicated and should know the Sythe community to a good extent.

* If he's been registered for 6-11 months, he's been with the community for a while and may have done a few trades already.

* If he's been registered for less than 6 months, you should inspect his activity more carefully.


How many vouches does he have? Keep in mind that vouch count isn't always an indicator of quality and that some scammers get many or cheap vouches. Take a closer look at his vouches, the people he traded with and if necessary, contact the people involved in his biggest trades.

Make sure that the user has no scam reports on him. If he does, show extra caution!



When you're certain that your trading partner is relatively trustworthy, you should send him/her a private message with additional, personal information and ask for the same in return.

Make sure that the private message has a descriptive title to avoid misunderstandings.



Once personal contact information has been exchanged, you should confirm that you are talking to the person whom they claim to be. This can be done in several ways - for example, you could message them the most important parts of any chat conversations and ask them to confirm what you agreed on. This should weed out most impostors, but keep in mind that safety still isn't guaranteed.

If you see that this person is not an impostor - you still need to know one thing,, an impostor, can try to scam two people at the same time and make them to send a private message to each other, so provide the more details you can, and ask him to do the same thing.

If you still don't trust the person you're trading with, you can use an MM/OMM (MMs are usually used for small trades, while OMMs are mostly involved in bigger trades). The OMM list can be found at:

http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=778174

You should confirm that the MM/OMM isn't an impostor either. Double-check his contact details and proceed to contact him privately as described earlier.

That's not all, you need to know the extra steps you need to take :


^ If the member does not have a very high reputation - use google, google shows many things about the people, google his username, MSN/Skype contact details, all his used emails, full name (Facebook is very good for this too).




^ Going first, make sure that the user is legit, do not care about his price/product, if you have more reputation than him - make sure that he goes first, if he does not - use a MM/OMM.

^ PayPal - make sure you accept a payment as a gift or via claim and cancel method. If payment is made via credit card or a bank account (e-check), it can be reversed no matter what the payment type is. I suggest you not to accept these types of payments from the new members.

Makesure to verify his Paypal information, get a proof from him that he is really the same person, that he owns that Paypal email, in this way you will avoid fraudulent Paypal accounts. Moreover, ask him to add a note in the payment information that he already received the goods and that he is happy about them (ask not to include anything about virtual items).

^ Trade speed, scammers wants you to make a fast trade, so if it is a fast trade, always ask for very much details, do not hurry, do not write PM's in a hurry.

^ No Sythe account, if the member says that he does not have a Sythe account - that's a sign that probably he is a banned user make him to create an account, if you do not want to make a trade with him now - wait till he gets a little more reputation.

^ Western Union, if the member is paying to you via Western Union, make sure to provide the services only after you claim the payment!

^ Teamviewer, do not let the person to connect to your computer via Teamviewer (unless you know he is very trusted), he can send a malware to you, or to trade the money to himself if you are logged on on RuneScape, sometimes even Teamviewer security settings can not stop the scammers, so be very careful.




^ Always use a hard to guess password, on every website try to use a different one, be very careful while using Facebook, nowhere use the same password.

^ Do not click on links which you do not know, check if a link is hidden, maybe it is a phishing link, do not download the files from untrusted websites/from the topics made by leechers (do not fall for fake Jagex or other phishing emails).

^ Use a Kaspersky/Nod32 Antivirus program, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program, every few months run a full scan especially if you suspect something.

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Very helpful guide. thanks!

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MSN: [email protected]

No problem, glad to help

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Not a bad guide at all, has the right amount of information and is well set out.

Nice and easy to undertand.

This will really help new members, thanks for posting it. I learned to trade personal details to ensure safety, thanks

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Thanks for the guide. Should be a good resource for the beginners

Seems like a clear guide.

You can add people can go first with w/u as long as they trust them ofcourse.

It is now stickied, enjoy

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This actually helped me a lot! Thank you very much!

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Really great guide, thanks for sharing

well put together guide, thanks Wernis.

No problem guys

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You shouldn't really pay/accept payments as a "Gift". As Giddy's thread says, Paypal has been noticing more and more payments sent as a Gift, and if caught, you will face certain punishments. The most common is the limiting of your account. A "payment note" should not be attached to a Gift payment. I mean things like "I have already received this virtual item..." and other variations.

Gift payments can also be reversed,albeit it is more harder to reverse one. If your seller requests a gift payment from you, be a tad cautious. It all depends on who your seller is too, of course.

Also, nice guide Wern!

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If you provided all the documents to Paypal it is a small chance you will be limited.

About gift payments, if you receive gift payment paid via Paypal balance (not credit card) and if you are 100% sure that Paypal account belongs to the buyer, you will not expierence any problems.

In most of the cases, if Paypal account is stolen, you see a dispute within 20 minutes. So if you are not sure does that account belong to the buyer, always wait atleast 20 minutes before providing the goods. And if the amount is big, ask for a proof of that.

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thanks this guide really helped me

Dėkui. Thanks mate.

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Great guide but personal experience is what all traders need

True, but this would not fit in such guide.

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In my opinion, the only people i would trade are trusted people. Cause i know that if someone else is selling it cheaper but they are not trusted it's likely to be a scam. If i may, my advise to anyone and everyone is 'If its too good to be true don't go for it.'