This is a really common scam that’s been around since at least 2017-2018 (albeit I’ve seen slight alterations each time since scammers always slightly change how they operate.) when I got scammed, except it wasn’t being done via Discord it was Steam because Discord wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now. I managed to get my account back via the REAL Steam Support and verifying it was made with my email. If you have a phone number or email attached to your account you could probably do the same but with Discord as you mentioned.
Wanted to bring this to the attention of anyone who uses discord, as my account got hacked yesterday by a very convincing scam and I don’t want any more people to fall for it :’)
PLEASE READ! THIS SCAM IS VERY DANGEROUS AND MAY BE VERY CONVINCING TO SOME!
The scam will open with someone either from your friends list or from a server you share DMing you. They will send a message saying they accidentally reported your discord account for something really bad and if you don’t file an appeal, both your account and IP address will be permanently banned from discord. They will say how sorry they are and include a screenshot of a discord email that states this offense, a ticket number, and instructions on how to file an appeal. The email screenshot will look real and even has the official discord support email as the sender. However it is faked.
The person who was hacked will then ask you to reach out to the ‘discord support member’ mentioned in the email, encouraging you that they’re doing the same and if you act fast, you can save your account.
The ‘support member’ I was directed to went by the name of Chao Chen. This same scammer may be the one speaking to everyone who falls for this, or it may be someone different, but either way, be wary. They will have a profile on discord that claims they’re a discord support team member seeking to rid discord of scammers (the irony)
They will also send a transcript that contains some of your account details, to make you think the scam is real.
The scammer will ask for basic information like your age, date of birth, and other questions seemingly related to your account identity. They will send you an official-looking card affiliated with discord that shows their specialty and position in the company. They will also request your discord ID number and then request you to temporarily change the email associated with your account to a burner email for “screening.” I made the mistake of letting my anxiety best me and agreed to this, but this step is how they steal your discord account. Once you have changed the email, you require a code sent to that email to change it, meaning you are now locked in to the scam email.
After this step, your account will be stolen and near the end of the scam or once you find out something is wrong, they will change the email, kicking you out. I tried to log back in using that email and my password but to no avail; they will change the email as soon as they can so you can no longer log back in.
If you haven’t figured out til now that this is very suspicious and is likely a scam (sadly I did not) they will next ask you to complete a “federal security check” and request you send them a small sum using your bank, PayPal, or card. They assure that the money will be returned in accordance with policy, but this is a lie. This was the point I finally got some sense and realized I was being scammed, and blocked the fake support member before I had my money taken. They then kicked me from my account and are now using it to spread the scam to others.
The scammer will also say small things to sway you into believing their lie. Threats like they have higher-ups monitoring the situation and telling you to “be careful and follow the instructions exactly”, official-looking documents, transcripts, etc, and acting like above all else they wish to help you get your account back.
The friend/server member who initially sends the scam will have already fallen prey to it, so block their account and be sure to warn any mutual friends/servers you share.
TL;DR; THIS DISCORD SCAM WILL STEAL BOTH YOUR ACCOUNT AND YOUR MONEY! BE WARY.
If your account was hacked, please reach out to Discord Support immediately. I will update on wether or not I get my account back and what they did to help, as of right now I am still awaiting a response.
Stay safe and please share this information where you can
edit; I never got my acc back as of this point :(
edit 2: after a ridiculously long amount of time, I did get my account back! But sadly it corrupted several accounts already. Good news though, I managed to get some screenshots of DMs that my -hacked- account sent to users. These will be posted below.
As the other person said, this is a super common Discord scam. Other scams that Discord users like to do is Nitro scams, if the nitro offer you're getting opens you in another window absolutely do not click that link.
DO NOT click any links, give any information, or answer any DMs that strangers have sent you. If a Discord staff member is trying to contact you, it will nearly always be through email! For some peace of mind, there's a good chance if you're active on Discord you've already been reported by someone and it's gone nowhere. Discord usually will investigate before banning or taking action on your account.
Another thing to note, if you have your steam account linked to your discord account, a lot of people might randomly DM you asking if that's your steam account, Do Not answer their DM, it's most likely either a report scam, or they're trying to trade with you and scam you out of items you own in some steam game you play.
As someone who has fallen victim to the Steam version of this scam, yes please do be wary!
the methods used by the scammer in this PSA are very similar, if not exact, to what I experienced. They pressured me to reply once I contacted “Steam support”, they implying impatience, and used intimidating language which got the best of my anxiety. Hell, they were even prepared with screenshots for anything (used a pic of specifically Steam on an iPad on a search engine, as if they were screenshooting my shared screen. This image was specifically sent almost IMMEDIATELY after I asked where to go next, which didn’t make sense with how the pic was marked). I didn’t know what I was doing, and the scammer didn’t seem to like that, especially when I didn’t reply immediately. They proceeded to use language like “youre wasting my time”, “you have 3 minutes”, and “you think I’m a joke?”, and that all made my anxiety worse
This had happened 2 years ago, so I’m not sure if these are the same scammers, and if they are different, are in the same group. Of course, there’s no evidence of that so there’s no telling. All I know is that the scammer I came across went by Solo on their account and based on a login detector, are possible located in the Philippines
I have screenshots of our conversations, I’m not sure if that’ll help, though
Oof… Yeah, unfortunately this type of scam is pretty common and has been around for the better part of 6-7 years. It sucks that they're still getting people with it, but that's probably why it's persisted this long… I had someone try a version of this with me, but for my Steam account rather than my Discord. It didn't go very far though 'cause I asked them for proof of the report + how they found the "fraudulent transaction" they reported, and they immediately blocked me. Took a screencap of the convo, DM'd it to the mods of the server we were both in (it was a gaming community server) and the person got the boot pretty quickly. Turns out I wasn't even the only person they tried it with.
When they start asking personal details, or request that you change your email, that's when you know this stuff isn't legit. Not 100% certain on it, but I'm pretty sure actual Discord staff members would have access to that information from their backend and wouldn't need to ask for it, and I definitely feel like true Discord staff would never make you change your email to something pre-designated. Pretty ballsy that they asked for money too, though. I've seen tons of scams to hijack accounts and spread malicious links, but never heard about anyone asking for money.
As someone who just got scammed by this very thing, I’m so very sorry this happened to you. Thank you for making this a post however! Would it be ok if I send this to my friends so they are warned ahead of time too?
The scammers got my account too and I’m fearful they’ll get them too.
Had the same thing happen to me except it was the Steam account one and almost got scammed bc I searched up "steam account accidentally reported" and found out it was a common scam for Steam users. Safe to say I dodged a bullet and blocked the accounts the scammer is using and the accounts they want me to DM, but now I no longer accept DMs from people I never interacted with unless it's commission/art trade related.
Sorry this happened to you OP and best of luck getting your account back! >_<
absolutely! Sadly today was rather rough as a bunch of my friends fell for the scam and I feel awful about it
Have you been able to get it back? I know discord support is a tad slow but at this point, if I can’t get it back, I hope it’ll be deleted.
Aw no :(
I’m sorry to hear that! My friends have been dm from my account and they said they almost fell for it- I hope they don’t get anymore from them! Stay safe <3
As a general head's up - if someone contacts you and applies a lot of pressure to do something, FAST! Because it's URGENT that you do something that has to do with your password/email/money/clicking a link?
Don't do it. The major commonality of scams like these are a reliance on seeming authority and social pressure
sadly I have not. One of the problems is a discord friend of mine who did something really dumb. She panicked about losing her acc and sent like a million tickets to discord staff when it hadn’t even been a day. Spamming them with tickets so I’m pretty sure my ticket is covered by those instead and idk when discord staff will have a full chance to see it :’)
I think it would be great if the thread was revamped to include similar scams other than the one involving Discord, because as others have mentioned, phishing is really common.
From my experience, I fell into a similar scam related to my Steam account, and lost about ~$680 CAD from it because I was being brainwashed by the phisher involved (I almost lost another ~$680 CAD, but thankfully got it back). Granted, I got my account recovered by the actual Steam staff themselves, but it was really scary falling for it. I unfortunately never got the first $680 CAD I lost returned to me.
sadly I don’t have personal experience from other types of scam, but if you would like to inform me I can definitely add them