Gaming, social media and giveaway scams

Your gaming and social accounts have real value: skins, in-game currency, followers and your friends' trust. Scammers want the account itself, and once they have it they can use it to trick everyone you know.

Free currency and skin scams

• Offers of free V-Bucks, Robux or rare skins, often shared by other players, on forums or in YouTube videos, are a common hook. 'Someone offering you free V-Bucks probably isn't doing it to be kind' (Norton).
• The real goal is usually your login. Once scammers have it, they can take your account and any personal or payment details on it, and they never send the free currency (Norton).
• Downloadable 'packs' promising currency, cheats or upgrades can be riddled with malware that lets attackers watch your activity or record your keystrokes (Norton).
• Buy in-game currency only from the official game store. Never buy from strangers or from sites not run by the game company (Norton).
• Never share your gaming password or financial details with other gamers, even teammates you have played with for months (Netsafe).

Fake giveaways and prizes

• Scammers pretend to be well-known companies that run real giveaways, and contact you on social media to say you have won (FTC).
• Sometimes a real business account is hacked and used to run a fake giveaway (FTC).
• The FTC rule is simple: if you have to pay to get your prize, it is a scam. Watch for 'taxes', 'shipping', 'processing fees' or 'customs duties'.
• Ask yourself whether a genuine free prize would ever need your card number. It would not (FTC).
• Check by going to the brand's official account or website yourself, not through the link. If it is fake, report the post and let the real business know (FTC).

Lock your accounts down

• Turn on 2-step verification (2SV, also called 2FA). The NCSC says it keeps criminals out even if they know your password. Start with your most important accounts (email, banking, social media and online shopping), then add gaming.
• Use a strong, unique password for each account. Your email password matters most, because whoever controls your email can reset everything else (NCSC).
• Never give a login code to anyone. A common trick is a friend's hacked account saying 'I sent you a code by mistake, please send it back'. That code is the key to your account.
• Check your accounts regularly for logins you do not recognise, settings changes or messages you did not send (NCSC).

When a friend's account asks for money

• Hacked accounts are used to message the owner's contacts asking for money, gift card codes or votes in a 'competition'. The NCSC advises people who are hacked to warn their contacts to treat recent messages with suspicion.
• Before sending anything, call or speak to your friend in person on a channel you already trust.
• Never pay with gift card codes for a friend or a stranger online. The FTC lists gift cards as a payment method scammers prefer because the money is hard to recover.
• If someone you met online moves to threats or blackmail, that is a different and serious crime. See the Personal Safety module's online safety lesson, and tell a trusted adult straight away.

If your account is hacked

• Contact the platform using its official help or recovery pages (NCSC).
• Check your email for suspicious forwarding rules or filters, then change the password on the hacked account and any account using the same password (NCSC).
• Log out of all devices and apps, then turn on 2SV (NCSC).
• Tell your friends and followers that you were hacked (NCSC).
• Check any linked bank cards or shopping accounts for payments you did not make, and contact your bank through official channels if you see any (NCSC).