Is It Safe to Buy a LoL Account?

What Does "Safe" Mean When Buying a LoL Account?

There are two separate risks, with different defences:

1. Ban risk — Riot suspends or bans the account, usually because of how it was levelled or played.
2. Scam risk — the seller takes your money without delivering, or recovers the account after you've paid.

Both are largely within your control. Scam risk comes down to how you pay and whether you get the original email; ban risk comes down to the account's history and how you play it.

Ban Risk: What Does Riot Actually Do?

Riot's terms of service prohibit selling, buying and sharing accounts. In practice, though, Riot's enforcement focuses on botting, cheating and boosting, not on buyers who simply play the account they bought. Nobody publishes reliable ban-rate figures for purchased accounts, so be wary of anyone quoting precise percentages. What is known:

• Riot's systems target how an account is played. Bot-levelled accounts, cheats, scripts and accounts shared with boosters are the patterns they're built to catch. Buying a hand-levelled account and logging in from a new device isn't one of them.
• An account's history travels with it. If it was botted, boosted or flagged before you bought it, you inherit that risk, so check the match history before you pay.
• What you do after buying is up to you. Cheats, scripts, macro tools or a paid boosting service reliably get accounts banned whoever owns them, so don't use any of them.

For the full picture of how bans happen, read can you get banned for buying a LoL account.

What Vanguard Does and Doesn't Do

Riot Vanguard, the kernel-level anti-cheat, became active in League of Legends with patch 14.9 on 1 May 2024. It is built to detect cheats and scripts, and Riot now uses it to issue hardware bans against cheaters as well as account bans. It is not a tool for proving who owns an account. For a buyer, the Vanguard-related risks are simple: don't run cheats, scripts or macro tools, and don't buy an account that was used with them.

How to Tell If an Account Is Hand-Leveled vs Botted

Bot-levelled accounts tend to show long runs of near-identical bot games, a tiny champion pool and unnatural session lengths. Hand-levelled accounts show varied game modes, champions and results. Ask the seller for a recent match-history screenshot and read our hand-leveled vs botted guide for what to look for.

Scam Risk: How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

Scams are far more common on unregulated channels such as Discord, Reddit or social-media DMs than on marketplaces with escrow. The two classic scams:

• Non-delivery — the seller takes payment and never sends working credentials.
• Recovery — the seller hands over the account, then reclaims it through Riot support using the original email.

How BuyAccount handles both:

• Every account comes with its original email login, so you can take over recovery yourself.
• Your payment is held in escrow until you confirm the account works or the escrow period ends.
• Every order has 14-day buyer protection: a full refund or a replacement if the seller recovers the account, it's misrepresented or undelivered, or it turns out to be stolen, already banned at purchase or nonexistent. Bans caused by your own cheating, scripting or toxic chat after purchase aren't covered.

You can see how a League of Legends account purchase works on BuyAccount, step by step, next to the current listings.

What to Do Immediately After Buying a LoL Account

1. Log into the included email first. Change its password, turn on two-factor authentication and remove the seller's recovery phone or address.
2. Change the Riot password at account.riotgames.com.
3. Change the Riot account email to an address only you control.
4. Enable Riot's two-factor authentication.
5. Check the account matches the listing — rank, champions, skins, Blue Essence and server — before you confirm the order.
6. Play normally — no third-party tools and no boosting services. Cheats, scripts and boosting are what reliably get accounts banned.

Our cross-game checklist, what to do after buying a game account, and the guide to enabling 2FA walk through each step.

If Something Goes Wrong — Your Options

The seller tries to recover the account

Recovery runs through the email on the account, which is why taking over that inbox first matters. If you lose access, contact platform support straight away with screenshots. On BuyAccount, recovery by the seller within the protection window is covered by a full refund or a replacement.

The account is banned soon after purchase

Take a screenshot of the ban notice and open a dispute from your order within 14 days. Buyer protection covers accounts that turn out to be stolen, already banned at purchase or nonexistent; bans caused by your own cheating, scripting or toxic chat after purchase aren't covered.

The account doesn't match the listing

Wrong rank, missing skins or fewer champions than advertised: open a dispute with screenshots of the listing and the live account before you confirm the order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Riot detect that I bought an account?

Riot doesn't publish how it would detect a transfer, and logins from new locations and devices are normal for any player. Vanguard looks for cheats, scripts and macro tools, not for who owns the account. What matters is the account's past (botting, boosting or cheating flags) and what you do on it, so buy hand-levelled, secure it and play it yourself.

What is the ban rate for purchased LoL accounts?

There is no reliable public figure, and claims of precise ban rates should be treated with caution. What is clear is that bot-levelled and previously flagged accounts carry the most risk, while a hand-levelled account that you secure and play normally keeps it low.

Is buying a LoL account legal?

In most countries buying a game account is not a crime, but it breaks Riot's terms of service, a contract between you and Riot. Riot's enforcement targets cheats, scripts, bots and boosting rather than a change of owner. Our guide on whether selling game accounts is legal explains the difference.

What if the account I bought gets banned?

Keep a screenshot of the ban notice and open a dispute from the order page within 14 days. BuyAccount's buyer protection gives a full refund or a replacement for accounts that are stolen, already banned at purchase or don't exist; bans caused by your own cheating, scripting or toxic chat after purchase aren't covered.