Is buying a game account safe?

The honest answer has two halves. Against the law — almost nowhere, for the buyer. Against the publisher's rules — yes, everywhere, without exception. What actually decides how a purchase ends is neither of those: it is whether the previous owner can still take the account back.

The risk that matters, in one paragraph

Publishers do not sweep for resold accounts. What happens instead is quieter: whoever still holds the original email, a linked console or the card in the payment history can ask support to restore “their” account, and support has no way to know a sale took place. This is why full access — the email itself, not just the game login — is the only thing that meaningfully lowers the risk, and why we hold your money in escrow until you have confirmed the handover worked.

What each publisher says, and what actually happens

Publisher	In the rules	In practice
Epic Games Fortnite	Transfers forbidden; the account stays Epic's property	Enforcement is reactive and aimed at theft. Epic's lawsuits have targeted sellers of stolen accounts, not private resale, and Epic stated publicly in March 2025 that it does not ban by IP address.
Riot Games League of Legends, Valorant	Selling, buying or sharing an account is a terms violation	Acted on when something draws attention — a recovery request, a chargeback, boosting reports. Riot does not sweep for resale on its own.
Supercell Brawl Stars, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans	Accounts are licensed, not owned; transfers are not permitted	Recovery through support is the practical risk: an account bound to the previous owner's Supercell ID can be pulled back.
HoYoverse Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero	Account sharing and trading are prohibited	The binding email is what matters. Without it, the previous owner can start recovery at any time.
Valve Counter-Strike 2	Steam accounts are non-transferable	Steam Guard and the phone binding make a clean handover harder here than anywhere else — check both before paying.

The right-hand column describes how enforcement has been observed to work, not what any publisher promises. None of them guarantee leniency, and all of them can change the rules without notice. Read it as the shape of the risk, not as permission.

The details, article by article

Game redeem codes: how they work, why most code lists are dead, and how we check ours

A redeem code is a publisher's coupon with a clock on it, and the clock is why four out of five code lists on the internet are wrong. The five kinds of code, the three ways a list goes stale, what codes never give, and the rules our all-games codes page is built on — including the one that says a disputed code is a dead code.

Roblox promo codes: why Robux codes do not exist, what the real codes give, and where in-game codes live

Roblox has never issued a code that gives Robux — not once, not for an event, not for a creator. Site-wide promo codes unlock avatar items and there is exactly one alive today; every code that matters is inside a specific experience and belongs to that experience. What each kind gives, how to tell a fake list, and why the money in Roblox moves the other way.

Apex heirloom accounts: what an heirloom is worth, why no marketplace can filter for it, and how to verify one before you pay

An heirloom is the one thing in Apex Legends you cannot buy outright, which is why «apex heirloom account» is the most-searched form of the whole market. What the shards, the 500-pack guarantee and the collection events add up to, why EA reports none of it as data, and the five-minute check that separates a real heirloom listing from a claimed one.

Dota 2 behavior score: what it is, how it moves, and why account buyers check it before the MMR

The hidden score with a 12 000 cap decides who you are matched with in every Dota 2 game, it moves by a few points a match, and it comes with a bought account whether you like it or not. What the number means, what a low one costs you, and what our shelf shows about the price of a high one.

Game account scams: a field catalog of eight schemes

Every account scam is a variation of eight schemes. Each one catalogued: how it looks from the buyer's side, the red flags, and the exact mechanism that breaks it. Numbered so you can reference them.

How to sell a Fortnite account for what it is actually worth

Median Fortnite account on our shelf: $74.48 — nearly three times the League median. Across 1 391 listings, exclusive skins predict the price; V-Bucks sitting in the wallet predict almost nothing. What to put in the listing, and what to fix before you list.

Is it legal to buy a game account? The honest answer, by country and by publisher

Buying an account is not a crime in the EU, the UK or the US — but it does break the publisher's terms, and those are two different questions with two different consequences. Here is which is which.

Full access vs no email: what you are actually buying

The same account at the same specification differs in price by half depending on one field. Here is what each access type means, and why the cheap one is not a scam — until it is unstated.

How to check a game account before you pay

Six things to verify before money moves, and the exact questions to ask. Most of them take under a minute, and each one kills a different way of losing the account.

How to sell a game account for what it is worth

Why accounts sit unsold for months, what buyers actually check, and how to price against the market instead of against the hours you put in.

Where to buy game accounts: seven marketplaces compared

Escrow, fees, delivery speed and what happens when the account dies a week later — the four things that actually differ between platforms, and how the big ones handle each.

Why bought accounts get banned — and what actually reduces the risk

Publishers forbid account transfers, so the risk is never zero. But bans follow patterns, and four of the five common ones are avoidable in the first ten minutes.

Straight answers

+What is the single biggest risk?

Recovery by the previous owner — not a publisher ban. Someone who still holds the original email, a linked console or the payment history can ask support to hand the account back, and support has no way to know a sale happened. Everything else on this page is smaller than that.

+How do I make recovery unlikely?

Take the email itself, not just the game login; change it to yours, turn on two-factor, and unlink consoles and third-party logins you did not set up. The full-access guide below walks the order — doing it in the wrong order locks you out of your own purchase.

+Do publishers hunt for bought accounts?

No major publisher sweeps for resale on its own; enforcement is reactive, triggered by a report, a recovery request or a chargeback. That is an observation about how it has worked, not a promise about how it will.

+What does buying here change?

Money sits in escrow until you confirm the login works, every order carries a 30-day warranty covering a replacement or a refund, and you write to support rather than chasing a stranger. It does not change the publisher's rules — nothing can — but it does change who carries the risk when something goes wrong.

Escrow is the part you can actually rely on

The money reaches the seller only after you confirm the login works, and every order carries a 30-day warranty — a replacement or a refund, decided by us, not by a stranger.

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