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Minecraft name scams: how they work and how to avoid them
Wherever something is rare, someone tries to sell it to people who want it badly. Short Minecraft names are no exception. Most of the scams around them follow a few patterns, and once you know them they are easy to recognise. This article goes through them, and through the one rule that protects you from almost all of them.
The rule: nobody needs your account to get you a name
A name is claimed from your own account, on minecraft.net, by you. No person, bot or site has to sign in as you to do it. Anyone who asks for your password, for a code from your authenticator app, for a code to type at microsoft.com/link, or for the "token" of your Minecraft account, is asking for control of your account. Say no, however friendly or urgent they seem.
The fake sniper
Someone offers to claim a rare name for you when it drops, because they have a fast program. All they need is access to your account, or a payment up front. Either you lose the account, or you pay and the name "was taken by someone faster". Even honest sniping services cannot promise a name, since many people try for the same one in the same seconds. Be wary of any promise of a guaranteed name.
The code to type
A message on Discord asks you to "verify" your account, join a giveaway or link a bot, and gives you a code to type at microsoft.com/link or a link to sign in. If you did not start that sign-in yourself, on a site you chose, typing the code gives a stranger a sign-in to your account, with no password needed. Microsoft's page shows which app is asking: read it before you approve anything.
The account that comes back
The commonest scam with names is selling the account that has one. You pay, you get the e-mail and password, you change them, and for a while everything works. Weeks later the original owner uses Microsoft's account recovery, proves the account was theirs from the start, and takes it back with the name. You have nothing left to claim, because buying an account was never allowed in the first place: Minecraft accounts are personal, and selling or transferring them goes against Mojang's and Microsoft's rules.
The fake middleman
In a trade between two strangers, a "trusted middleman" offers to hold the money until both sides deliver. Often the middleman is the scammer's own second account, or a copy of a well-known person's profile with the same picture and a name one letter different. Check identities in more than one place, and remember that a trade that needs a middleman is usually a trade that breaks the rules above.
The name that cannot exist
Two-letter names, names with spaces or accents, "reserved" names you can buy before they drop: none of them exist on Java Edition. A username has 3 to 16 characters, uses only letters, digits and the underscore, and nobody can reserve a name that has not dropped yet. The username rules list what is possible.
Phishing pages and fake launchers
A page that looks exactly like minecraft.net or the Microsoft sign-in, reached through a link in a message, collects whatever you type in it. A "launcher" or "client" from an unknown site can steal the session your real launcher keeps. Type the addresses yourself, keep to official downloads and well-known mod sites, and read how to protect your account for the details.
If it already happened
- Change your Microsoft account password from account.microsoft.com, typed by hand.
- Look at the account's recent activity and sign out of every other session.
- Turn on two-step verification if it was not on.
- Remove the apps you do not recognise from the list of apps with access to your account.
- If you cannot sign in any more, use Microsoft's official account recovery. Do not pay anyone who offers to "recover" it for you.
What this site does and does not do
37 Days never asks for your password and never claims names for anyone. When you sign in to follow names, you do it on Microsoft's or Discord's own page, we never see your password, and you can remove our access at any time from your account; the privacy statement says exactly what we keep. What we give you is information: when names drop, and a notice when one you follow is about to.
