I just made a post in retail general about a similar topic, but it applies to the idea of “who actually falls for this stuff” gonna repost it here:
I have a story to tell, but first you need to know that in RuneScape (at least when I played) any item could be dropped onto the ground and picked up by other players after a grace period of about 30 seconds - 1 minute.
The grace period is there because if you accidentally dropped an item instead of equipped it, well that would suck to get it snatched, so no one could see that you dropped it for a short time.
Also gear wasn’t “soulbound” and there was no equivalent mechanic. If I dropped my dragon plate that I had been wearing on the ground, it would appear there for everyone to see very soon after
Ok so many, many, many years ago when RuneScape was still 2D, and I was still in middle school and felt like the biggest, baddest dude around because I had a full set of rune plate armor, a big rune 2 handed sword, and had long beaten the final dragon of the Free questlines, someone who I never knew before whispered me.
“Hey, did you hear about this new item duplication glitch?” They asked me.
I told them I had not.
“If you take all of your gear and drop it on the ground, and then press alt + f4 it will duplicate all your gear. I heard they’re going to patch it soon so you better try it quick.”
Now I had no idea what alt + f4 did. If I wanted a window closed I simply clicked the red X in the upper right hand corner of the screen with my mouse like any civilized person would do.
Needless to say that by the time I logged back in, all of my gear was gone. And I was devastated. Absolutely devastated. I almost certainly cried, and I quit the game for a very long time.
During my weekend of not playing, I had an idea. I didn’t want to go through that effort to get my full set of rune plate and my rune 2 handed again. That took months of time sitting at the library and playing. I had to do something else.
“I can’t be the dumbest person out there.” I thought to myseld. “I bet someone else will fall for the same thing I did.”
So I started whispering everyone I saw with rune armor and weapons. I told them about this amazing new item duplication glitch that they had to take advantage of right now.
No one bought it. I was called names upon names and blocked and laughed at and told to do various uncomfortable things with inanimate objects.
I probably spent weeks, every day after school, just trying to find people who were wearing rune (or even mythril at this point I don’t care just something!) And tried to get them to drop their gear and hit alt +f4.
Until finally, one day, a guy with rune plate helm, rune chainmail chest piece, rune plate legs, and a rune 1h and rune kite shield, finally seemed to be interested.
He asked if it was a scam, I said, “Look u don’t have 2 trst m3 I dnt care if u do it r not im jst tryng 2 help u out.”
Then all of a sudden, his armor was being unequipped. His weapons were gone and his character model stood there in a tan shirt and green pants.
I was so excited! My heart was pounding out of my chest. And when his character logged out I knew it finally happened, I would finally have what was stolen from me back, now that I have stolen it from someone else.
And then, after 30 seconds had passed…
The guy logged back in and called me a pathetic loser and said he knew it was a scam all along.
I eventually came to the conclusion that either I really was the dumbest person out there, or I at least was having a hard time finding anyone as dumb.
I tried getting back into RuneScape. But it was too hard to really find it enjoyable. Starting all over just felt like an insurmountable task.
And Everytime I saw someone in full rune plate and a rune 2 handed sword, I had to let them know of this really cool item duplication glitch I had heard about. That totally works and they better try it before it gets fixed.