Tips to help avoid being scammed [Buyer and Seller] [OSRS SALES]

Hello i am ricky and i've been on sythe for a little over a year now. My first 6-8 months i was just a lurker, a close friend from rs referred me to the site when i was in need of a firecape. Never went thru with it because i wasn't sure how this whole thing worked, but none the less i stuck around and eventually started doing services myself. Here are some things i picked up along the way.

The biggest tip/word of advice i can give is truly donor doesnt mean much. I see way too many people in service sections/acc trading/gold buying saying "I want x-x runecrafting level" or "I want to buy Y account" and they always end up saying "Trusted members only". These people are often deceived by a donor tag. DONATION =/= TRUSTWORTHY.

I would also like to add, buying an account is NEVER a good idea in my personal opinion. I've bought 3 accounts thru playerauctions, all of which have been recovered. After doing some research i learned that recovering an rs acc is beyond easy for an original owner. You are much better off paying the little bit extra to get someone to handmake you an account you created to your desired levels ect. If you are choosing to buy an account, always be careful of how much wealth you leave on the account as at any moment the account could be recovered.

Another quick tip you can do is frequently check the "Report a scammer" or "Ras" section. If a player has been reported but a mod hasnt seen it yet, they wont have any market bans and will try to scam as much as possible before a mod punishes them. It's always a good idea to check the RaS section before agreeing to any form of payment with someone you think is sus.


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Here's some tips to help you sift thru someone who maybe drawing some red flags(Buyer):

1. Their vouches.
If you're looking for 1-68 runecrafting, and a 200$ donor PMs you and says hey i can do it for you, i have 40+ vouches, sythe member for 1 year and donor. I'm trustworthy. The first thing you should do as ask them to link their vouch thread or find it yourself. I've spoken to way to many people who've been scammed by 100$+ donors because "they had a lot of vouches" only to look myself and see that every single vouch was for buying gold/swapping gold/buying services and 0 vouches for actual skills.

EXAMPLE:
My vouches are all me doing skilling/questing/minigame services. All of a sudden i DM you because i see you want to swap your 1b 07 to 6b rs3. I say yeah man, i can swap all 1b for you at a great rate!

If you check my vouches beforehand and see i've never done anything like this before, but now once a large amount is involved i'm suddenly available to give you far better rates than people who are known for swapping, red lights should go off in your head.

2. Recent posts.
Same example as above, but this time maybe he does have a few vouches for the skills you're looking for. Another good method at sifting thru scammers is by checking their recent postings. Odds are, if someone's a solo operator and has no workforce/employees, He won't be able to promise 10+ people 1 week-2 week long services at the same time. Most scammers are the same. They join sythe, wait a couple months, donate 50$, then try to scam as much as possible in 1 swoop. If someone recently has pmed you/posted on your thread, make sure you check their postings. If recently they've been blowing up the service/quest/minigame section, odds are they're trying to score as much money as possible before they scam quit.

EXAMPLE:
You have a post saying "Looking for someone to train 50-99 agility for me!"
I dm you and say "hey man i can do it all for 60m, you pay first tho"
At first this looks like a great deal. If you look into my vouches and see wow, this guy does a lot of skilling he's probably not scamming me. The next thing you should do is look at my recent postings. If i'm offering you, plus another 8 people LARGE/VERY LARGE services for MEDIUM/LARGE payout, odds are i'm just trying to collect as much money as possible before dipping. Again this should draw red flags.

3. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Most service providers offer similar if the not identical rates for skills/quests ect. My example would again go to runecrafting. If you want a runecrafting service, and a larger service with many vouches for similar services in the past is offering you say 55 gp/xp, and you decide you want to shop around and find something maybe a little cheaper. If you find someone willing to do for 30 gp/xp, it might be too good to be true. I know everyone wants to save money, but be smart. Typically in life you get what you pay for. If you really thing 2m rc xp is really only worth 30gp/xp, goodluck.

EXAMPLE:
You DM multiple well known/large service providers for runecrafting training. They all offer you 60-80gp/XP.
Smaller service provider with low amounts of "Trust" dms you and offers you 32gp/xp for the same training. This doesn't instantly mean they're scamming, yes maybe they are just building trust, but you should still BE VERY CAUTIONS. ALWAYS USE A MIDDLEMAN WITH SOMEONE YOU DON'T 100% TRUST. even if you 99% trust someone but something just doesnt seem right, don't chance it. USE A MM!

4. Middleman
This goes without saying, but any "service provider" who refuses to use MM is probably scamming you. As someone who does services legit, i'm just looking for a payday. By whatever means. I prefer you trust me straight up, but if you want to use a MM, trust me i'm not insulted nor do i care. As long as you pay fees and i trust the MM, it's not an issue.

EXAMPLE:
You find me via the service section and would like to order bgloves from scratch. I tell you price is 250m and it will take 2 weeks. If you don't feel comfortable just giving me 250m straight up, say you want to use a MM. ANY LEGIT SERVICE PROVIDER WILL NEVER SAY NO TO USING A MM. As long as i know the MM and i know it's not an imposter, I HAVE 0 ISSUE LETTING A MM HOLD MONEY UNTIL I COMPLETE SERVICE.

5. Incremental payments.
I suggest this for any order larger than 100m OSRS or 50$ USD at a time. If you are sussed out by a seller, ask them about incremental payments. What this means is instead of paying the lump sum (Example: 50m for 1m agility xp), you'd rather pay him 10m every 200k agility xp gained. So you'd start off by paying him 10m, then once 200k xp is gained, you pay him another 10m, so on and so forth until completed. This doesn't prevent you from getting scammed, it simply minimizes your losses if it turns out the provider was a scammer.

EXAMPLE:
You'd like to get 1-99 FM on your new HCIM account. I tell you the price is 120m. You don't feel comfortable buying all 13m XP at once for 130m. AS A LEGIT SERVICE PROVIDER, I WILL ALWAYS ALLOW INCREMENTAL PAYMENTS. You can pay me 40m for 4m xp, then once i gain 4m xp you can pay me another 40m, then once i have gained that 4m xp you can pay me another 50m and i will gain the remaining 5m xp.

6. Protecting your account.
Always change your password BEFORE and AFTER ordering any service. Ontop of this, request constant screenshots to make sure the service your paying for is handdone (if you agree'd to it not being botted). I've also seen reports/talked to people who paid for X skill to be trained for a cheap rate, only to have their accounts banned for botting because they didn't request enough screenshots. In the screenshots you request, you should ALWAYS ask that the entire client be shown, as well as the time/date.

-Example of an acceptable screenshot-


7. Request sythe confirmations.
If you're talking to someone who added you on discord, ALWAYS ask them to verify their identity via a sythe pm. Here is a template you should require when asking for a sythe PM

Your discord ID:
My discord ID:
The trade:
our convo:

8. Remove unnecessary wealth.
This is crucial to avoiding being scammed. There has been larger/well known service providers in the past who have taken large amounts of wealth off accounts during a service and the buyer was unable to prove it so the seller gets off free and you're screwed outa whatever they stole. PLEASE always transfer any unnecessary wealth off your account! Unimbue your rings, repair your barrows and transfer, only leave what is required for the job!

EXAMPLE:
You're buying a void set a service provider. Other than the melee setup you have equip, nothing else is required for the service. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR 97M IN PVM GEAR IN THE BANK! It's a recipe for disaster. Create a new account, invest 4m in a bond to protect your 97m!!! It is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to prove that the provider stole items from your bank. PLEASE DON'T RISK IT!

9. Take plenty of screenshots.
When buying a service, you should always take screenshots of AT LEAST these things:

- Bank value
- Player owned house
- Insured pets
- Untradables
- Stats/starting XP

This helps protect you against a player who agrees to do a service for you, but then turns petty af and goes into your house and removes your gilded altar, maxed pools, ect. I'm 83 Construction with max poh (Wildy altars, lvl 91 jewelry box ect) and it cost me approx ~38m to build everything in my house. You most likely will not be given any form of refund for whatever's lost, but if you make a report the person who did it may receive a penalty (TWC, DNT, BAN ect.)

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Here's some tips to help you protect yourself against false reports(Seller)

1. Take plenty of screenshots.
If you're leveling up an account, you should be taking plenty of screenshots. You never know what someones going to accuse you of. When i do services, these are the things i ALWAYS screenshot.

Bank wealth upon start:
Bank wealth upon logout:
Starting xp:
Ending xp:
Levels:
Milestones:
Hourly screenshot:

These screenshots can help you in cases of a false report. If you constantly screenshot your client + time/date, it's very hard for someone to lie about you scamming them. An example of this would be if you're doing a sand crab service for someone. If you take screenshots every hour, and include the entire client + time/date, all levels/milestones, it's very hard for a buyer to lie and say you were botting the account. ALWAYS LOG YOUR TIME SPENT ON ACCOUNTS IN A NOTEPAD!

2. Confirming wealth
Anytime you're starting a service, the first thing you should do is go to a bank, and take a screenshot with time/date showing and confirm the value of the bank with your customer. I've seen a lot of reports saying "I had 150m when i started! now i only have 10m!" While some of these may be true, some may also be a front to scam YOU. The customer could have 200m on his acc, and take a screenshot of bank value before you login. He could then transfer 190m over to his alt account and hand you over the acc info. If you do not confirm with him the value, he can show a screenshot of 2 minutes before you logged on of his account having 200m value, and you will have no proof it wasn't you who stole the items/wealth. BE SAFE, TAKE SCREENSHOTS AND CONFIRM WITH CUSTOMERS!

3. Make sure customers change password BEFORE & AFTER SERVICE!
Always make sure you remind your customers to change their passwords before and after a service. This is crucial because if the customer doesn't change his password after a service, 1 of 3 things could happen.

-Nothing could happen and everyone goes on as normal
-He gets scammed by another service seller, but the service seller claims it wasnt him. Customer then remembers you also had the password/he never changed, starts to blame you
-He doesn't get scammed, but pretends to clean the account and then blames you because "You had his password"

Always be safe! MAKE SURE you specifically state in your ToS that all players must change password before and after service. As well as that, make sure before you begin service you remind customer, as well as after. If a customer ever says "I can't change my password, is that fine?" ALWAYS DECLINE SERVICE. It's most likely a scam to make it look like you stole their items.

4. Make sure your ToS is solid.
Mind you, your ToS WILL NOT trump sythe rules, but a good ToS can help protect you from scammers. Some crucial things for any service providers are as follow:

- I am not responsible for any bans/mutes as i handtrain accounts with all forms of chat turned off
This can help protect you from delay bans, which are more common than you think. (Remember to take constant screenshots of your progress)

- I am not responsible for any wealth on account not required for service. Please transfer all items off not needed for service.
This might seem like you're saying you want to steal the persons items, but this will most likely make the legit customers transfer any excess wealth off accounts that will not be needed, which helps you avoid people trying to say you stole their bank when you didn't. This also helps if someone does attempt to say you stole their items, just make sure everytime you log off an account, you take a screenshot of the bank with time and date.

- You may not login during the entire duration of the service without ample permissions from me prior to you logging in.
This helps prevent bank value scams, the player getting themselves muted/banned and blaming you, ect. The only time a customer should be allowed to login during a servce is if you don't have access to their bank and they need to set up your inventory.
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None of this will prevent you from being scammed, anything is possible. Please always be smart and careful. I hope this helps at least one person, in the last couple weeks i've had 5 people come to me and say they've been scammed by a "trustworthy" member and this is the advice i give them/anyone who asks me for it. Thanks for reading.​

 

Well put together guide. This will help people new to sythe proceed a bit more cautious.

 

Nice guide. Really in depth and gets to the point.