Every subscription scam store, without exception, fails at least one of the checks below. This is the checklist we run on our own competitors — and the one we’d run on us if we didn’t run this store. It takes ninety seconds and it works on any store selling AI accounts, VPNs, Office keys or anything else digital. Bookmark it.
The 60-second scan (before you even look at products)
1. The checkout test. Is there a real payment gateway (cards, established crypto processors) — or is payment “message us on WhatsApp/Telegram and we’ll send a wallet address”? Wallet-DM payment is the defining feature of the classic subscription scam: irreversible, unaccountable, gone.
2. The HTTPS-and-identity check. A padlock is the floor, not the ceiling — but no padlock, no sale, full stop.
3. The too-cheap test. $20 products at $1.50 aren’t discounts; they’re stolen cards, harvested accounts, or pure bait. Real gray-market prices cluster at 30–70% off retail. Below that, someone is lying.
4. The timer test. Countdowns that reset on refresh and stock counters that jump around are fabricated urgency. Honest stores have live prices and real stock — ours update hourly with the wholesale market, and that’s the honest version of “prices change.”
The product-page scan
5. Format stated? Private account, upgrade to your account, or activation code — written down before payment. “Premium 1 month” is not a format.
6. Warranty window stated? In days, with a replacement-or-refund promise. A store that believes in its supply chain insures you against it; a store that doesn’t, doesn’t.
7. Delivery time stated? Automatic in minutes or manual within hours — both are fine, silence isn’t.
8. Do the cheapest and priciest listings follow the same rules? Scam stores keep two or three polished bait pages and hundreds of empty ones. Sample randomly.
The support scan (the most revealing one)
9. Is support public and pre-sale responsive? A public channel with real history, and a reply to your question within minutes — that predicts everything about how you’ll be treated after payment. 10. The refund-policy read. Not “do they have one” — everyone pastes one. Does it name failure cases, delayed orders, and supplier faults specifically? Generic paste jobs hide “no refunds, ever” in paragraph four.
If a store fails one check
One red flag: proceed only if everything else is immaculate and the amount is one you can afford to lose. Two red flags: close the tab. The market is deep — the same product exists at a fair price from a seller who passes all ten — which is exactly why we hold ourselves to this checklist publicly: every listing in our shop states format, term, warranty window and delivery time, payment runs through a real gateway, and support answers in minutes on Telegram. For the mechanics behind the whole market, read the gray-market guide.
