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When Runescape first opened, cheating was at an all-time high, and was rarely prevented. However when Jagex introduced the RuneScape members service the additional cash revenue meant they were able to start enforcing the rules better, and they implemented many macro detection routines and it is nearly impossible to hack RuneScape by any method, so the most common technique is to create macro programs to gain an unfair advantage over other players in the game. Cheats used these programs to automatically play the game for them, and gain levels on their character whilst they slept.

An earlier popular program of this type was a 'clicker macro' which looked at colours/text on the screen and worked out where to click. Notably the "AutoMiner" (by Nicholas Sherlock), which allowed users to automatically sleep, automatically bank items by navigating to the bank and talking to the banker, and then automatically return to the spot they came from (A feat of navigation when you consider that this cheat is based purely on RuneScape's interface. The "AutoMiner" is no longer being maintained, and so with further measures from Jagex (detailed below) eventually became ineffective.

Jagex responded with some workarounds such as shifting the screen by a few pixels in a random direction every ten seconds or so. This meant cheats that always click on the same spot on the screen will miss the target after a few minutes. Other counter measures included automatically logging the user off after 3 or 4 minutes of standing in the same spot, making the minimap's compass display have only a loose relation to the angle of the map being displayed and making the minimap rotate a little bit at random to discourage cheats that can examine the minimap for specific details for navigation. Some clicker programs were even able to operate despite these measures, so Jagex made a very controversial change. Users found themselves becoming "Fatigued" while doing any task that might be automated with a cheat, and were required to type in a mangled word to recover from their fatigue. In the RuneScape 2 Beta, Jagex got rid of fatigue, and went with a "random event" system, where monsters would appear while mining, fishing, or burying bones. There was also another set of random events that would happen at any time (one being a mysterious old man that teleports you if you do not talk to him.)

Another attempted cheat was to manipulate the communications protocol directly and try to create a program which sent gameplay instructions directly to the server. This was much more effective than trying to examine the screen, but after a while Jagex fought back by randomly changing the communications protocol to make it harder for communications-based hacks to operate.

Whilst cheaters were writing such programs a number of flaws in the RuneScape code were discovered. Whilst the RuneScape server attempted to validate all external input, a few severe mistakes in the server code allowed some users to trick the system into giving them items, duplicating items, and killing npcs which were supposed to be non fightable. All of these attacks were a result of mistakes in Jagex's server code. They shouldn't have been possible, but were at least fixed within a few hours of the problems coming to light.

At this time there are no publicly known methods of hacking Runescape.

There are a number of sites on the internet that still claim to offer cheating tools. However users should be extremely wary of these sites, since they are generally not what they seem, and the programs they offer normally either:
a) Contain a keylogger designed to steal the users runescape password. (and hence their items)
and/or:
b) Use 'clicker macro' style techniques as described above, which are now detected, and will probably just get the users account banned.
c) Some 'macro programs' are even more sophiscated, designed to be a type of spyware, loading with Windows automatically, and even replaces system files.

It is recommended that RuneScape Users do not try to hack others, though some people do experience that some of their items went missing or their password had changed mysteriously, and the recovery questions too.