Jagex collars fraudster

In the wake of RuneScape users' account details being stolen by 'phishing' techniques, a 23-year-old man in Avon and Sommerset was arrested earlier in the week.

“Account theft and the use of phishing websites is a problem facing the entire online games industry and Jagex maintains a specialist team to combat any law breaking within our games” said Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard. “Where there is any evidence to suggest someone has committed a crime, as is clearly the case with any phishing or hijacking, we work closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to bring these people to account.”

By chance CasualGaming visited Jagex on the day of the arrest, and was shown the large team handling security and safety at the Cambridge developer by Gerhard, who revealed £3 million in salaries is spent providing 24-hour support to prevent fraudsters and those with unsavory intentions

“Our first and only concern is protecting our player community as we know the high value players place on their unique accounts” continued Gerhard, in a press statement about the crime. “Players invest years of time and effort into developing their RuneScape character so the theft of a RuneScape account shouldn’t be treated differently to the theft of any other valuable possessions such as a games console, television or car. Our internal investigations revealed that just a handful of individuals are responsible for over 95 per cent of all account hijacking in RuneScape and we have a zero tolerance approach to anyone who attempts to undermine the integrity of our vibrant community. I would like to extend my sincerest appreciation to the professional and hard-working individuals at the PCeU and the FBI, who are assisting us with similar actions in the USA.”

“People who seek to destroy others online gaming experience could be committing criminal offences, leaving themselves liable to prosecution” added PCeU Spokesperson.  “The PCeU will continue to work with the industry and investigate these allegations where appropriate.”