If you find yourself on this article, you're either the subject of a phishing scam from a fake giveaway, or you're curious on how to detect and avoid fake giveaway scams.

Unfortunately, in communities built around trading valuable items, there will always be bad guys trying to steal from innocent people.

Recently, fake giveaway phishing scams have been spreading on Discord. These scams are typically spread via direct messages. Discord doesn't have adequate protection against these scams, so in this article, we'll show you the signs to look out for, so you can avoid getting scammed.

TL;DR: Messages claiming you've won a giveaway are scams 99.9% of the time. Don't click on links you don't recognize. Scammers will try to impersonate RL Garage to appear legitimate.

DMs claiming you've won an item

Scammers will send you a DM (Direct Message) claiming you have won a Rocket League item from a giveaway. Typically, they tell you that you have won a highly desirable item such as a Titanium White Octane. They are hoping you get so excited about the item, that you forget to check if the giveaway is legitimate.

Giveaway item must be claimed from a link

In nearly all cases, these scammers will require you to go to a link to claim your item. Once you click the link and go to their website, you are required to login with your Epic Games account, or in some cases Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo. However, when you login through this website, your username and password are stolen by the scammer. They can now access your account and steal your valuable items from your Rocket League inventory. This scam technique is called phishing and is sadly very popular.

Impersonating RL Garage

We at RL Garage frequently host real giveaways. To make the fake giveaway appear legitimate, the scammers will make it seem like the message is coming from us, or other known communities. The message itself may mention our name (RL Garage/Rocket League Garage), and the website may look like RL Garage, but in fact, it's just a look-a-like to make you fall for their scam.

Example

To give you a better idea of what a fake giveaway scam looks like, here is an actual screenshot of a Discord DM one of our users received from a scammer:

There you have it — some common signs to look out for to avoid getting scammed by fake giveaways. A good rule of thumb is: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Don't click on any links! Even if your intention is to only look at the website, these sites may log your IP address and target you in different ways other than phishing.

Ignore them! Replying to them accomplishes nothing, and only wastes your time. The accounts messaging you are usually bots and never get checked.

Report them! If the message is sent via Discord, report them for spam directly on Discord and then block them. Please also make sure to report them for scamming on RL Garage.

Note: If you're a victim of one of these scams, and you've lost your Rocket League items, we won't be able to return those items to you. We will help you ban the scammers, of course, but that is the extent to which we are able to help you.

When RL Garage host giveaways, here are some things to keep in mind:

Active giveaways are listed here: https://rocket-league.com/giveaways.

Only people who have joined the active giveaway has the opportunity to win. If you're told that you've won a giveaway that you never joined, assume it's a scam.

Winners of giveaways on RL Garage are ONLY contacted via RL Garage chat from a developer account. A developer account will be clearly marked with a Developer tag. We will never contact winners on Discord, Twitter, or anywhere other than RL Garage.

If you win, the only thing you need to do to claim your item is join our in-game lobby and accept the item. You will NOT be required to claim the item via a link.