online without getting banned or scammed in 2020
Summary
Buying OSRS or RS3 gold from websites are the safest place to buy, make sure they have reviews and located in a safe country to purchase from.
If you get asked for verification only give the basics.
Buying in F2p will likely cause you to get banned, only use members accounts to buy gold.
Using companies that operate outside your country is likely to get you banned.
If buying large amounts make sure to stake the gold and not trade when possible
Cheaper sites cut corners, make sure to care about your accounts first even if you use alt accounts.
is it safe to buy runescape gold?
The two most common concerns people have when buying OSRS or RS3 gold is if they will get scammed for their money and never get the gold or will their account be banned. We are here to answer that question so you know how to buy RS gold safely.
The first question you need to ask yourself is where are you going to buy that gold from? this can be tough since it may be hard to differentiate between the source options. This article will help you do that:
Peer to peer - this can be a great option to buy runescape gold ONLY if you know the person personally. I don’t mean in game, or someone you think you know, I mean actually know. If you have someone that is reliable and has gold and you know personally, then this is by far the best option. You will understand why as you read on. But, if it is not someone you know then this is much riskier and the most likely way to get scammed. For the seller this is most of the time a one off transaction and there is no backed reputation that is verifiable. You have no clue what their real intentions are. Based on data, we have seen you are likely to get scammed 75% of the time this way. Yep scarey! Lot of bad apples.
Forum websites / peer to peer websites - This is one step above just a random person that you may have met in game or from an ad since many of these sites have some form of basic review system. The challenge is that the reliability is tough to realize since most sellers will have you pay using an unsafe payment method (Western Union or Bitcoin) where you aren’t protected. If something goes wrong, poof the money is gone. Theses places seem to have the best prices but you are still likely to get scammed one way or another. There are actually some credible people on these sites, but differing between them can be very tough, so we don’t recommend using this option unless you are willing to try 5 - 6 vendors with the anticipation of losing your money 2-3 times finding the right vendor. Even if you do find the right vendor, our section on “how not to get banned playing runescape” can make this choice even harder. On top of that, after you found a reputable seller, you may have to deal with many of their imposters since scammers are out and about copying their profile images and acting as if they are the reputable seller themself.
The next choice is a website. Being as unbiased as possible, this is the best place to get gold. There are still some issues with websites but in the next section we will go into how to choose the website. So why are websites the best source to buy your OSRS Gold? Well for one, the reputation is usually the largest from any other source. This means you can really tell who they are and find information online about them. Their website is always in the same place and they are always accessible 24/7. They also have the most to lose for a bad review making them keep their service standard higher as well. On top of that, a scammer cannot imposter the website domain name. www.google.com will always be www.google.com. A website operates as a business and not as a person just doing flips from time to time. This mentality is important. They are focusing on growing professionally by keeping customers happy since they can’t disappear overnight like a person can. They do this by adding processes and offering wide selections of payment methods. It is clear with these intentions, websites are your safest bet.
How to choose the right runescape gold website?
To avoid being scammed for your hard earned money, you need to buy from a trusted source. There are tons of trusted gold sources and there are also tons of fake ones that pose as being trusted. To check the credibility of a gold source, you can look for their reviews or vouches online. Some of the best places to search for those are Sythe and eBay and a simple Google search.
Step 1: Does the country matter when buying Runscape gold?
Once you have found a few places to pick from let's check where they are from. We are not limiting countries or saying anything negative about any other countries not mentioned in this article, but we find the best sites to buy OSRS or RS3 gold from sites based out of the US, UK or Canada. The reason for this are the laws there to operate as a business. In order to run a business in those countries, cheating customers is a very negative incentive for the business and might even lose them the ability to operate. That being said, a lot of websites may seem like they operate from one of these countries but their employees are really elsewhere and this should be a red flag to you. Either they are not being truthful or they don't have control over their process and we wouldn’t want you to be dealing with a rogue employee that can do anything they want. You would never want an employee taking your information and using it to attack you. To review, a website should probably be located and fully operated from a country you are familiar with.
Step 2: Checking the reviews.
The next step is to check out the reviews and the type of reviews that are important:
Why sythe? www.sythe.org is a place where people can vouch for one another after a transaction which is dated and each person giving the vouch or receiving the vouch has their own vouch thread where you can read tons of other vouches for those users. The sythe admin and moderator team also does a good job of removing people with malicious intent.
Why ebay? www.ebay.com is a great place for reviews because let's assume your looking to buy an item from someone. You can see their overall rating and also see the overall rating of all the people who have reviewed their products. All purchases on ebay are verified purchases, meaning the customer purchased that specific product and left a review on it. You know that the company actually sold the product and that it is not made up. For example, a seller with 100 reviews, and then out of those 100, 90 of them are different users, and out of those 90, 80 of them have over 100 reviews themselves is a great sign to tell that the ebay seller is legitimate.
If you see reviews on a website, it should be paired with another verification source as well. We believe that reviews on a website can be great but should be considered cautiously. Look at what people are saying, does it say “100% best” for every review or does each one have a more detailed and personable experience? If the rating lets say matches the ebay profile rating and the reviews on the site don't sound like computers then you are probably looking at a site that won't rip you off.
Can I buy runescape gold with no verification?
In many cases the answer is “yes” but there is no definitive way to say whether you will be asked for an ID or not, so we decided to tell you what to do if you do get asked for verification. We get that you don't want to verify yourself which is sometimes why we go down the more risky methods of purchasing runescape gold to avoid that. We will explain what type of verifications are okay and which ones aren’t okay.
Don’t verify: If a company asks for financial details, card number, SSN or anything like that, run!!!! But, what happens when they ask for ID. Well most sites don't need your DL number so you shouldn't give that. We believe only information that is public is what is actually acceptable.
Do verify: ID that shows just your name, address, maybe even a photo, DOB is perfectly okay. Unless you are living in the woods and your on the witness protection program, you shouldn’t be overly concerned with providing that basic public information. Maybe they ask for a piece of current mail that shows your name and address or maybe they call you or ask you to take a photo of the ID next to the website. These are all okay and your name and address is not harmful information and often is the information they already have anyways. Remember, you only are giving this to a site you have determined is safe so you will be fine!
Now that you know the most popular places to make sure you won’t be scammed for your money, time to also make sure your not going to get banned from the game.
What good is the gold if your banned tomorrow or worse tonight?
Can you get banned for buying RuneScape gold?
Yep! Not as uncommon as you think… But do it right and you won't be banned. Here is how:
The best way to avoid being banned is ALWAYS use member accounts. People have the misconception that if they buy with their level 3 that they just created and don’t want to waste any money making it a member, then just trade it to the main account after then they are in the clear and the only account at risk is the new level 3. WRONG! Couldn’t be more wrong. Jagex follows the gold and we have tested it (many times that make us still cry). The game knows you own both accounts and trading it to your main after doesn’t make it any safer. All that did was raise red flags for doing a large trade on F2P since the most expensive item actually in F2P is around 10 million coins. Yes! Your VPN is not going to help you here. So think of it this way… f2p is where most sellers sell gold since they aren’t willing to cover the expense of using member accounts and each world is a different server. Jagex spends most of their time looking for RWT in F2P since it's so easy to find there, not like a needle in a haystack like member worlds are.
Is buying Runescape gold from different countries safe?
On top of using member accounts, you should always try to buy from the same country as yourself. Trading large and randomly with foreign countries heightens the risk of the transaction being flagged and the accounts being caught and banned. Dealing with your own country when possible is always the best option.
Is trading OSRS gold better than staking?
While using member accounts and also buying from people in your own country, there is still amounts of gold that can be considered high risk. For example, if someone is buying a large amount such as 1 billion or more in one purchase, they should consider having the gold staked to them. Yes I know… there is a duel arena tax now of 1% but it's a small price to pay for a huge addition to safety. I certainly suggest this when dealing in large quantities.
What's better? Cheaper or safer Runescape websites?
Some people just buy from a different website on every purchase just to get a coupon or save a few cents. A different country and a different type of account every time. Basically asking for a ban. Might as well go to the grand exchange and write “Jagex, please ban me”. All jokes aside, you shouldn’t take that route. Find that place that works best for you!
Taking all these steps will certainly help you buy gold safely and avoid getting ripped off or banned. Keep these in mind when making your next order!
