I’ve had a lot of people say to me, “Can you give me stuff - I’ve been hacked.”

I actually find this the biggest pile of (insert term of your choice here) I know of. Either the person is just lying to get, as the term goes, free stoof, or the person was fooled into entering their Runescape password into a bogus Runescape site/email to become a player moderator, or let a friend know his or her password. This is actually complete bull! I see hundreds of these a week, all designed by some low life scum who can’t earn GP themselves and seek to rip other people out of their hard earned GP. Listen, if you enter your password on any of these sites or emails, you’re asking to have your account and items stolen. So don’t do it! Jagex says plenty about only entering your password on their site, never anywhere else - http://www.runescape.com. Jagex NEVER asks for your pass via email. If you fall for those other sites that ask for your pass and give it to them, then you deserve to lose your stuff - from your own stupidity.

One of the most common reasons a person gets hacked is by letting their friends on their account. The so-called-friend steals the items. Same here - you deserve to lose your stuff. I have never given out my password to anyone ever and guess what… out of all my years of playing Runescape, I have never been “hacked”. Seriously, you deserve to lose your account by doing those things. It’s just pure stupidity. How much can I stress - Do not give your password to any so called friend no matter how much you trust them!!!!…. Even if you know them in rl, go to school with them or they are one of your actual siblings - do not give them your password unless you want to lose all your items and get the character banned! Account sharing is against the rules!

In terms of key loggers, the solution is simple just run an anti-virus and anti-spyware tool. If you can’t afford one, there are plenty of free alternatives around that are really good - AVG anti-virus and Spybot search and destroy. Marlaine and I both use these programs!

Also - a lot of people have easy to guess passwords that their so called friends can easily figure out - like some pet’s name or something else easy to guess. Or they have it written down somewhere where their friends or siblings can find it….. Use numbers in your name, and make sure no one is looking over your shoulder to see what keys you hit when you enter your username and password on Runescape, try to think up unique passwords, and if you feel you must write the pass down, disguise it to look like some other list. Marlaine has disguised pin numbers for her credit card by listing them like a telephone number listing - Uncle Jerry or some such person she doesn’t even know. Now please, don’t use this suggestion or everyone who reads this will start looking through you address book!

I’m tired of all these people coming up to me and begging for free stuff saying they’ve been hacked! Seriously, before you blame a hacker, make sure you have not done any of the above. They are not hacking you, you are giving your account to them, saying please take my items! Don’t expect any sympathy from me - you won’t get it! If you have been so-called hacked by one of these methods… do you really want to blab your stupidity to the world?