Riot Games deactivates League of Legends skin codes to fight scammers

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Riot Games says fraudulent and abusive activity by third-party sellers of rare and limited-edition League of Legends skins is becoming increasingly problematic, as fans pay exorbitant prices for content they can't even be sure they'll actually get. Since Riot can't stop people from throwing their money at whatever shiny bauble catches their attention at any given moment, it has decided to attack the problem at its source by deactivating skin codes entirely.

As Gameranx explains it, Riot occasionally offers exclusive character skins to attendees of particular events or conventions, which naturally makes them quite rare. Not everyone who acquires these skins does so with the intent of actually using them, however; some instead offer them for resale at ridiculously high prices, and the worst of them sometimes even fail to deliver the goods as promised. The problem has become bad enough that Riot has decided to take action by killing the market entirely.

"We are working with multiple payment processors to inform them of the situation and recommend they no longer process fraudulent payments from these sites," the studio wrote in a forum post that went up over the weekend. "Additionally we will be deactivating all previously issued skin codes starting today [July 11, 2014]. If you have a skin code that you acquired legitimately please send a request to Player Support and include proof of ownership. We'd be happy to help redeem the content to your account, but please note after 23/07/14 we will no longer be redeeming codes for any reason."

If you find yourself in that position, you may seek the required aid from the support department right here . Riot also confirmed that it will not retroactively remove skins that have already been claimed.

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Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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