In-game con artists

In plain terms

Many Roblox games let players swap virtual pets, weapons and other items. Some of those items are worth real money, so other players, mostly children themselves, talk younger ones into handing them over.

The tricks have many names but come down to four moves. A child who knows the four moves and the five rules at the end is protected against nearly all of them. New to Roblox? Start here.

Key facts

• Any Roblox game that lets players trade items has scammers. The best-known settings are Adopt Me, Murder Mystery 2, Royale High, Blox Fruits and the Pet Simulator games.
• Almost every con is one of four moves: get the victim to go first, swap the item at the last second, borrow authority, or create urgency.
• Most scammers are other children. Many were scammed themselves first.
• Adopt Me's developers say plainly that any request to "trust trade" is a scam, and block the phrase in chat.
• Lost items are rarely returned. Prevention is the only reliable protection.

How solid is this?

The labels are explained on the Start here page.

Why these games breed con artists

Four conditions have to be present for a con economy to form, and popular Roblox trading games have all of them.

• Items with real value. A rare pet can represent months of play or a meaningful amount of pocket money, and can be resold for cash outside the game.
• Free transfer between players. If an item can be given, it can be talked out of someone.
• Very young, trusting players. Consumer-safety writers describe these scams as designed around the vulnerabilities of children aged roughly 7 to 14.⁵
• No consequences. A banned scammer makes a new free account in two minutes.

The result is a playground where the oldest tricks in the world are rediscovered daily by eleven-year-olds, and practised on eight-year-olds.

The four moves

The list of named scams is long and changes every month. Underneath, there are only four things happening. A child who understands these does not need the list.

1. "You go first." Any arrangement in which the victim gives up their item before receiving anything.
2. The switch. What is on the table at the moment of agreement is not what was there a moment ago.
3. Borrowed authority. Claiming to be staff, a famous player, a trusted go-between or a friend.
4. Urgency. A deadline, a crowd, a countdown: anything that stops the victim thinking.

The catalogue

Trust trade

The scammer proposes a trade done in two halves, usually with a reason the normal trade window "won't work": the items are too many, a pet needs to be "tested", they will give double back. The victim hands over their item in the first half. There is no second half.

Adopt Me's developers have been blunt about this for years: "'Trust trades' are scams."³ Their support pages add that anyone telling you to trust trade, including with a friend, is running a scam and should be reported.² The community wiki notes why children fall for it anyway: the thrill of the gamble, and the promise of something valuable at the end.¹

The quick switch

A good item is placed in the trade window, the victim agrees, and in the final seconds it is replaced by something that looks similar: the ordinary version of a rare pet, the same knife in a common finish. The victim confirms out of momentum.⁵ Stuffing the window with junk items to hide the change is a common variation.

The fake middleman

For trades the game cannot handle directly, players use a trusted third party who holds both sides' items and passes them on. The con is to supply the middleman: a second account run by the scammer, or an accomplice, presented as a well-known neutral trader. The victim hands their item to the "middleman" and both accounts leave.

The convincing version uses a copy of a real, reputable middleman's name with one character changed, and a Discord server full of fake testimonials.

Impersonating staff and celebrities

A player with a developer's or YouTuber's name and avatar announces they are giving away rare items, or says the victim's account is under review and their items must be "verified". Adopt Me's developers list this among the standard scams: someone claiming to be staff or an influencer, asking for items or offering free ones in exchange for rarer ones.¹

Real staff never ask for items. A real creator's account carries platform verification that a lookalike name cannot copy.

The giveaway

Someone shouts in a busy server that they are giving away Robux or a rare item. To enter you must follow steps: join a group, add them, give a small item "as an entry fee", or visit a link. The steps are the scam. Deadlines are used to rush children into acting before they ask anyone.⁴⁵

Doubling and duplication

"Give me your pet and I'll duplicate it." "Donate and I'll send back double." There is no duplication trick that works by giving your item to a stranger. To build trust, the scammer often does return double on a small first amount, then keeps the large second one. This is the same structure as an adult investment fraud.

The helper

An offer to raise a pet, decorate a house or level up an account for you, which requires handing over the pet, edit access to the house or the login. Adopt Me's developers list offers of decorating or pet-raising help in exchange for access as a known scam.¹

The sob story

"I got scammed yesterday and lost everything." "It's my birthday." "My little sister is crying." Sometimes true. As a repeated script from the same account in server after server, it is begging refined into a con, and it works very well on kind children.

The fake boyfriend or girlfriend

Role-play dating is common in hangout games. Some players use it deliberately: a few days of attention, then requests for gifts as proof of affection. The victim loses items and is usually dropped the moment they stop giving. Because it borrows the shape of grooming, parents should treat it as more than a lost pet. See Part 1.

The rigged crowd

Several accounts work together. One makes an offer; the others, apparently strangers, shout that it is a great deal, that they just did it and it worked, that the victim should hurry. Every witness is the same person or the same group of friends.

False values

Trading communities rely on fan-made value lists. A scammer cites a fake or outdated list, or simply insists that a common item has "gone up" and a rare one has "crashed". Newer players have no way to check, and overpay enormously.

Cross-trading

Swapping an item in one game for an item in another, or for Robux or money. One side must go first across two systems that cannot see each other, so one side can always walk away. Adopt Me's developers warn that buying or selling its items for Robux or real money gets the account and all its alternates banned.³ So the victim of a cross-trade scam cannot even report it without admitting to breaking the rules themselves.

Donation-game cons

In donation games, players set up stalls and others give them Robux. The cons here include promising to donate back more than received, fake "goals" for invented causes, and impersonating a large donor who is "choosing who to give to" among those who donate first.

The recovery scam

The cruellest, because it targets someone who has just lost everything. A helpful stranger says they know a moderator, or have a method, and can get the items back, for a fee or in exchange for the account login. The victim is robbed a second time.

The link from a friend

A message from a real friend's account: "is this you in this video?" or "vote for my game". The friend's account was taken over, and the link takes the victim's next. This is the point at which in-game cons join the account theft described in Part 2.

Why it works on children

• They are trusting, and usually right to be. Most people a child has met have not tried to rob them.
• They want it to be true. A rare pet for nothing is an offer a child has no reason to doubt and every reason to want.
• They cannot judge value. Rarity, demand and price are abstract. A confident older player saying "that's a fair trade" is persuasive.
• They feel time pressure acutely. "Quick, before I leave" overrides everything.
• They are embarrassed afterwards. Many do not tell a parent, which is why the same child is often scammed more than once.
• The loss is real to them. An adult sees a cartoon unicorn. The child sees months of effort and their standing among friends. The grief is genuine and should be treated that way.

Who the con artists are

Mostly other children. That is uncomfortable, and it is the main thing adults misunderstand.

The usual route in is being scammed. A child loses something they cared about, sees that nothing happens to the person who took it, and concludes that this is how the game is played. Videos presenting scams as clever pranks or as a way to get rich reinforce it. Scamming a scammer is a celebrated genre of its own, which lets everyone involved feel like the hero.

Above the children sits a smaller, more organised layer: older teenagers running many accounts, working in groups, and selling what they take for money through the channels described in Part 2. For them it is income.

If your own child turns out to be the one doing it, that is common, and worth a calm conversation about the person on the other end rather than a panic.

What the games have done

Developers of the larger trading games have added real protections. Adopt Me is the clearest example:

• A trading licence. Players must pass a short test about scams before they can trade the rarest items.⁶
• A confirmation step with a delay, so a last-second switch has to survive a second look.
• A fairness warning when a trade is heavily one-sided.⁶
• A trade history, so that a scam can be reported with evidence.⁶
• Chat blocking of the phrase "trust trade" and similar, with a warning shown instead.¹

These work against the switch. They cannot work against a child who willingly presses accept on an empty trade because someone promised to pay them back. Technical defences stop technical tricks; the trust trade is not a technical trick.

They also have a side effect. Each protection inside the game pushes the con to places with none: Discord, private messages and cross-trades.

After it happens

1. Do not expect the items back. Some developers reverse trades in clear cases of account takeover. Trades the victim agreed to are almost never reversed.²
2. Report anyway. Use the game's own report system and Roblox's. It will not help this time; it gets the account removed.
3. Ignore anyone offering to recover the items. That is the recovery scam.
4. If a link was clicked or a password shared, change the password immediately, sign out of all sessions, and turn on two-step verification.
5. Take the upset seriously. Say it was a real loss and that it happens to adults too. A child who is told it was "just a game" learns not to tell you next time.

Five rules for children

Short enough to remember, and they cover nearly everything above.

1. Never go first. If both sides are not in the trade window together, it is a scam.
2. Look again before the last click. Read every item, every time.
3. Nobody gives rare things to strangers for free.
4. If someone is rushing you, stop. A real offer will still be there in five minutes.
5. Trade only inside the game. Never for Robux, money, or items in another game.

For professionals

The professional briefing covers indicators and reporting in full. Points specific to this subject:

• It is the earliest fraud education most children get. The four moves are the same ones used in adult romance, investment and impersonation fraud. A lesson built on a game pupils know is likely to be remembered when a lesson about bank scams is not.
• Take the loss seriously. The monetary value is usually small. The distress is not, and a dismissive response teaches a child to stop reporting.
• Check which kind of con it was. Most are peer-on-peer and end with a lost item. Two are different: the fake boyfriend or girlfriend follows the pattern of grooming, and the link from a friend leads to account takeover. Both warrant a closer look.
• What to record. The game's name, the date and time, the other player's username and user ID, and screenshots of the trade history and chat. Larger games have their own report forms as well as Roblox's.
• When the child is the scammer. This is common and usually follows being scammed. It responds better to a conversation about the other child than to punishment alone, and it is worth asking whether an older player taught or directed them.
• For consumer-protection bodies. These items are sold for cash on general marketplaces with no age check on buyer or seller. The developers' ban on such sales is the only control.

What is still unknown

• How common these scams are. No developer publishes figures.
• How well the in-game protections work. Their makers have not published results.
• Who the scammers are, in any measured sense.

Glossary

Cross-trade

A trade across two games, or for Robux or money. Against the rules and unenforceable.

Dupe

Duplication. The claimed ability to copy an item, used as bait.

Fail trade

Excuses that the trade "glitched", used to explain why the victim must send again or go first.

Middleman

A third party who holds both sides of a trade. Legitimate ones exist; fake ones are a standard con.

Overpay

Giving more value than you receive, deliberately or because you were misled.

Quick switch

Replacing an item in the trade window at the last moment.

Trust trade

Any trade where one side gives first and trusts the other to follow. Always a scam.

Value list

A fan-made ranking of what items are worth, used to judge trades.

Sources

1. Adopt Me! Wiki, "Scams". adoptme.fandom.com Reference Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Archived copy (26 Aug 2026) · Register R24
2. Uplift Games support, "Dealing with a Scammed Account". upliftgames.zendesk.com Primary Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Search the Wayback Machine · Register R25
3. Adopt Me! official account on X, statement on trust trades and cross-trading. x.com/PlayAdoptMe Primary Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Archived copy (27 Aug 2025) · Register R26
4. Digital Trends, "Scammers are going after young Roblox players and their Robux". digitaltrends.com Reporting Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Search the Wayback Machine · Register R27
5. Roblox Radar, "10 Most Dangerous Roblox Scams (And How to Stop Them)". robloxradar.com Reference Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Archived copy (22 Jul 2026) · Register R28
6. BloxSwaps, "How to Trade in Adopt Me", describing the trading licence, trade history and fairness check. bloxswaps.com Reference Search summary only · Accessed 3 October 2026 · Search the Wayback Machine · Register R29

Scams without a citation, and the section on who scammers are, describe publicly observable community practice rather than a specific published source.