How to Spot and Avoid Trading Scams

Nearly every trading scam follows the same playbook: it moves you somewhere with no records, rushes you along, or asks you to trust a claim you have no way to check. Below are the scams MPGH sees most, how to recognize each one, and how to report it.

Fake middlemen and staff impersonators

How it works. Someone offers to "middleman" your trade, or a "staff member" messages you on Discord or Telegram to "verify" a deal. You hand over the item or the money, and they vanish. Variants include fake MPGH Discord servers and usernames or avatars copied from real middlemen.

How to avoid it:

• MPGH staff and middlemen never trade on Discord or Telegram. Every step of a genuine deal happens on MPGH.
• Only the MPGH Middleman team may act as middleman. Trading through anyone else breaks the rules, and it is a permanent ban for the traders involved, not just the fake middleman.
• Check the profile on MPGH, not the name in a chat app. Display names and avatars are trivial to copy.
• Let Secure Trade handle it. You never pick a middleman in a chat. The deal room is where the trade happens.

Recovery pullbacks and chargebacks

These two scams hit opposite sides of the same deal.

Recovery pullback (hits buyers). The seller hands over an account, then takes it back days later with an old recovery email, phone number or security question, or a support ticket using the original purchase details.

• Change the password, email, two-factor authentication and every recovery option the moment the account is yours. How to buy a game account safely walks through the steps.
• If the account gets pulled back, report it in the deal room right away. Staff can see the full deal log.

Chargeback (hits sellers). The buyer pays with a method that can be reversed, takes delivery of the account, then disputes the payment to claw the money back.

• Know which of your payment methods can be reversed, and check the money has fully arrived (not pending) before you confirm.
• Run the trade through Secure Trade. MPGH cannot reverse a chargeback for you, but the deal log records the buyer confirming they received the item, and a buyer who scams this way faces a permanent ban.

Either way, scamming means a permanent ban, and the deal log is the evidence.

Fake vouches and scam-free claims

How it works. A seller stuffs their thread with vouches from alt accounts or friends, or writes "scam-free" and "100% legit" in the title, hoping you skip the real checks.

• Vouches may only come from real trade partners or official middlemen. Self-vouching, fake vouches and bought vouches are all permanent bans, but scammers keep trying. Open a voucher's profile: no history and no trades is a bad sign.
• Verified reviews are harder to fake. Each one is attached to a completed, logged Secure Trade deal, so it carries more weight than a forum vouch. A determined scammer can still run deals between their own accounts, so open the reviewers' profiles too.
• Boasts are noise. Titles like "scam-free", "can't be scammed", "100% legit" or "most trusted seller" are flagged by the marketplace rules for a reason. Proof and reviews are what count.

Phishing links

How it works. A link that mimics a game, Steam, Discord or MPGH login page, a "verify your account" message, a free-skins giveaway, or a "proof" download that is really malware. Log in through it and the scammer owns your account.

• MPGH warns you. Links posted by low-trust accounts (low reputation, banned or unverified) show a warning mark and ask before opening.
• Never log in through a link someone sent you. Type the site's address yourself.
• Proof is a picture. Screenshots and videos do not need to be downloaded and run. An .exe or a password-protected archive sold as "proof" is a red flag.

If you already clicked: change your MPGH password, turn on two-factor authentication, change the password on any site you logged into through the link, and report the post.

How to report a scam

• On a post, thread or private message: use its Report button. It goes straight to the moderation team.
• Inside a deal: use Report a problem. Staff join the deal room with the full history in front of them and can put the deal on hold while they look.
• Anything else: use the contact form (log in first).

Include the usernames, a link to the thread or deal, what happened, and screenshots. Do not edit or delete messages: the record is what staff act on. If the impersonator is off-site, send the chat screenshots through the contact form, along with the name they used and the MPGH account they claimed to be.

Trade inside Secure Trade and most of these scams never get a chance to start.