Argen scammed 800m OSRS

Scammer's profile link: Argen
Amount scammed: 800m at $0.217/m = $173.60

Explanation of the trade: Argen was selling us 800m OSRS at $0.217/m. They ended up trading the 800m to an imposter, but still took $173.60 off our balance even though we never received the gp. They claim it's our fault, when we gave our RSN twice and they still traded the gold to a different RSN.
How they scammed: Charged us in full for the 800m, even though we haven't received it. They secretly took the money off our balance, without telling us or discussing it. They are abusing the fact that they already owed us money, which is not fair. This should be a TWC, as it's poor trading practices.

Other relevant trade screenshots:

Break-down of what happened: an imposter changed to a name similar to ours and traded Argen. Argen put up 800m in trade to the imposter. the imposter now knows 800m is being traded. a second imposter traded us, with a similar name to Argen. the second imposter also put up 800m in trade, so we confirmed that it was us. So Argen traded the 800m to the imposter.

Argen did not even offer to split the loss, he didn't come up with any resolution at all. He was in a position of power, because he already owed us money and could subtract the full amount off the debt. This is not fair and is a poor business practice.

The fact is that they are at least equally at fault, because we gave our rsn TWICE and they still traded it to a different RSN. We did not even know their RSN, so had no way of knowing if it was actually them that was putting up 800m in trade.

 

First of all, this is not a scam.

Secondly, I personally did not conduct the trade, it was handled by a member of our staff, for which we take full responsibility.

After thoroughly reviewing the entire process, I can confirm that we followed all reasonable steps to verify the trade. During the interaction, you explicitly confirmed “me in trade”, and based on that confirmation, our staff member (Nerox) proceeded with the trade.

There was clearly an impersonation situation happening, and unfortunately both sides were affected by it. The evidence shows that you were being impersonated at a common trading location (Grand Exchange entrance), which is a well-known hotspot for these situations:
Screenshot

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It’s also important to highlight that impostor scams are currently at an all-time high across multiple games and platforms. Because of this, prevention requires constant adaptation from both sides, trading practices must evolve continuously to avoid exactly these types of situations.

Regarding your comment about “position of power”. I understand how you’re framing it, but you are also fully aware that we have never failed any payments, debts, or prior agreements. Our track record speaks for itself.

When I responded earlier, I gave you my honest initial assessment after reviewing everything. Instead of engaging in a resolution, you immediately escalated the situation publicly:
Screenshot

This makes it clear that there was little intention to discuss or negotiate, but rather to control the narrative from the outset.

For anyone reading this:
Impersonator scams typically happen when trading routines become predictable. In this case, there are clear patterns that contributed to the situation:

• Use of low-level burner accounts (level 3)
• Repeating the same worlds (F2P/P2P)
• Trading in the same locations consistently
• Not rotating trading methods or adapting security practices

These are exactly the conditions impersonators exploit.

To conclude:
The gold was delivered only after receiving your confirmation “me in trade”, which is a standard verification step, especially because this type of scam is unfortunately common.

 

Our staff member confirmed "me in trade" because someone put up 800m in trade.

We did not have your RSN, so had no way of knowing it wasn't you. You guys are experienced GP traders, yet still trade the gold to an imposter after we told you our RSN TWICE? How does that happen?

You did not follow all reasonable steps to verify the trade, because you traded someone with a different name. It is extremely suspicous to just deduct the full amount off our debt without any kind of discussion / notification

 

Our staff member confirmed "me in trade" because someone put up 800m in trade.

We did not have your RSN, so had no way of knowing it wasn't you. You guys are experienced GP traders, yet still trade the gold to an imposter after we told you our RSN TWICE? How does that happen?

You did not follow all reasonable steps to verify the trade, because you traded someone with a different name. It is extremely suspicous to just deduct the full amount off our debt without any kind of discussion / notification

The claim that a level 3 imposter account just happened to have 800M ready to mirror the exact amount we were trading is extremely unlikely. How would they even know the exact trade value in advance? That argument doesn’t hold up and there is no proof supporting it.

Nerox is not responsible for handling disputes or these kind of negotiations. He informed me immediately, and I replied to you as soon as I could to try and discuss the situation and reach some form of resolution. From our side, there was willingness to talk this through, but it seems you’re not open to that.

 

They knew the trade value because you guys put up 800m in trade with the imposter. I've already explained that

It took you over 36 hours to respond, and then you responded with this. You showed no willingness to discuss the matter at all. You just deducted the money off our balance and hoped it would blow over

 

They knew the trade value because you guys put up 800m in trade with the imposter. I've already explained that

It took you over 36 hours to respond, and then you responded with this. You showed no willingness to discuss the matter at all. You just deducted the money off our balance and hoped it would blow over

It was Easter weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and I wasn’t home, which is why there was a delay in my response.

Once again, the process on our end was handled by staff. The delivery was completed and the sale was logged accordingly. That said, the sale can still be reversed or adjusted if there was any real willingness from your side to discuss it.

You never reached out to me privately to resolve this. Instead, you chose to escalate it in a public group chat with all of our staff, which doesn’t show any real intention to fix the issue, it just adds fuel to the situation, as it usually does.

This will be our last message here, as this is clearly turning into something that should have been handled privately. My DMs have always been open to negotiate, but you closed that door from your very first message by threatening to open a Sythe report. That report is now open, so at this point we will wait for admins to step in and determine a resolution.

 

Discussing this with staff, will be back to you guys shortly, there are a lot of previous precedents behind these cases, but there someone little different about this one.

 

This was actively discussed by staff for a week. The staff discussed possible liabilities, which are 50/50 and full liability for agen, there slight difference in this case from the previous one, where both users involved were aware of each other's RSNs and both parties confirmed.

Here is an example of a case in past where we have done full liability on the trader who delivered the gold: ABM dispute (I wouldn't normally do this, but this case is on me myself)

In these scenarios, we try our best to hold the negligent party liable. Normally, as in the case I linked above, this gold seller doesn't verify the RSN properly, as I did in the past. As seen (here), both parties were aware of each other's RSNs. Both parties confirmed that they were in trade with each other, specifically, Searchy/his employee didn't directly confirm a trade when the screenshot provided by the other party showed they were in trade with an impostor. Searchy would not have acted with any sort of negligence. Therefore, both parties have shown incompetence. This could lead to major issues in the rules if we didn't hold Searchy accountable in some way, as be basically greenlight gold sellers to participate in/facilitate more of these impersonation scams.

@Argen, please refund searchy half the amount

Please ignore the ruling above, staff will discuss this further

 

I have uncrossed my ruling slightly since this is still relevant to the final decision.

Even though @Searchy confirmed the trade, it is not his fault that @Argen traded the wrong RSN. However, in the screenshot, you can see the RSN of @Argen was viable, yet he confirmed he was in trade. At the end of the day, it is still @Argen’s responsibility to verify that the RSN he is trading with is correct. Ultimately, @Argen delivered the gold to the wrong RSN.

Despite the above statement, @Searchy has shown bad trading practices by confirming the RSN since he was aware of the RSN as seen in the screenshot, which leaves @Searchy with two options:

1. Receive a TWC for bad trading practices and take no accountability for the gold he confirmed he was trading.
2. Pay half the amount of the gold lost and not receive the TWC.

The reason for this ruling is that it aligns with our bad PM policies and a previous report regarding a similar incident.

@Searchy, the ball is in your court. Please let me know which option you prefer, and I will direct @Argen on what to do.

 

I'll go with option #2

 

@Argen, please return searchy half the balance or the amount in USD

 

@Argen, please return searchy half the balance or the amount in USD

Returned

 

@Searchy, please confirm if this has been resolved.

 

@Searchy, please confirm if this has been resolved.

Still waiting on @Argen to send me crypto

 

Still waiting on @Argen to send me crypto

Done

 

Done

Payment received

 

Thanks, this has been resolved.