Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule for three reasons: firstly, because we don’t want you to be able to buy your way to success in RuneScape. If we let players start doing this, it devalues RuneScape for other players. We feel your status in real-life shouldn’t affect your ability to be successful in RuneScape. Secondly, we cannot monitor the transactions made between players outside of RuneScape, and if players swap items for external benefits we can’t see, to us it looks like an unbalanced suspicious trade. Thirdly, often when players attempt to break this rule and sell items in RuneScape for real cash, the items are actually stolen, so you could even end up getting in trouble for receiving stolen property. If you purchased a RuneScape account, you might find it suddenly returned to the original rightful owner and you would find yourself out of pocket.