Riot Games has decided to cease offering skin codes for League of Legends in an effort to end scams related to the practice.
Previously, players who wanted to acquire rare of limited edition skins for their characters would usually have to purchase them through third-party sellers who managed to acquire these rare skins directly from Riot Games by attending events and conventions were the studio had a presence. Because of this practice and the rarity of the skins, many players have been scammed or made to pay exorbitant amounts of cash for skins.
The developer has posted an official update on its forums informing users that they have until July 23 to redeem their keys before the codes are permanently deactivated.
“These sites promise limited edition skins for League of Legends, when in reality they acquire codes illegitimately and exploit players. They charge excessive prices (we found one skin for over $1,000!) and sometimes take payment and never provide the content. You can’t predict the outcome, and no purchase is ever guaranteed regardless of what the seller says.
“Riot is taking action against these scammers at the source. We are working with multiple payment processors to inform them of the situation and recommend they no longer process fraudulent payments from these sites. Additionally we will be deactivating all previously issued skin codes starting today. 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.”
Riot adds that skins that have already been redeemed prior to this announcement will not be removed retroactively.
