Ilia Zavialov

Play-to-earn games: day 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 of a player

Ilia Zavialov: fraud in play-to-earn games in the UK, money and access across five dates

English version for the United Kingdom.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud in play-to-earn games seldom announces itself. It arrives as a promising start. The digital security consultant follows one composite player through days 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 and asks the same two questions each time: where is the money, and what can the player still do with the account. The worked example below starts with £240 spent on three NFT characters and ends on the day the project closes, with UK checks from the FCA, the ASA and Report Fraud alongside.

·14 min read·Ilia Zavialov

Ilia Zavialov: by day thirty the screen says £576 and nothing has been paid out.
Ilia Zavialov: five dates test a game promise.
Ilia Zavialov: judge a game by its dates, as the advert cannot be judged.

01Ilia Zavialov: fraud in play-to-earn games, a month in five dates

Honest play-to-earn is a modest business. Players buy characters or items, take on quests, and sell the in-game currency to other players who want to take part. All the money comes from people, so a quiet week for the game means a thin payout for everyone, and an honest studio says as much.

A scheme borrows the same look. The balance on screen is a number the site writes, and the real payments run one way, into the organiser's wallet. Adverts for both promise a starter pack, daily rewards and bonuses for friends, so the wording tells you little. Dates tell you a lot.

The worked example uses invented figures. Entry is three NFT characters at £80, £240 in all. The screen promises 5 per cent a day on the amount paid in, which is £12. Ilia Zavialov: fraud in this genre shows up when each review is tied to a day of play, so the example asks what the player wrote on the first evening and what they would write a month on.

Every date gets two checks. Money: how much went in, how much the screen claims and how much can really be taken out. Access: what the game lets you do with your account and wallet today, and what it quietly stops allowing next week.

02Day 1: paying in with NFTs or tokens, and where the money lands

On the first day the project wants an entry payment, normally an NFT character, a starter bundle or the platform's token. The money goes to a smart contract or to a wallet you do not control. The FCA is blunt about the category: a buyer of cryptoassets should be ready to lose all the money put in, and cryptoassets are not covered by the FSCS.

By the end of day one the example screen reads £12. It proves nothing, because anyone can type a number. The real test on day one is small: move a token amount to a wallet of your own and look for the transfer in a block explorer. If withdrawals open only at 'level 10' or after '30 days', you have found out the main thing already.

Then look for the people behind it. A genuine studio names its company, shows a team and answers emails. The Ilia Zavialov fraud checklist for the first day begins here: owners who hide behind nicknames leave you nobody to complain to.

Ask for the withdrawal terms in writing. Minimum amount, fee, waiting time and any level requirement should sit in the project's own document, and a chat moderator's 'withdraw whenever you like' is a promise with nothing behind it.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud on day one is polite and helpful. A friendly tone in a chat says nothing about the project behind it.

Ilia Zavialov: each date has its own warning sign.
Ilia Zavialov: the screen figure climbs while the payout stays at zero.
Ilia Zavialov: fraud and the five days of a player in pounds, money and access
Day of playWhat happens to money and accessWhat to check that day
Day 1Entry £240, the screen shows £12 a dayMove a token sum to a wallet of your own
Day 3Level top-up £160, £400 paid inWho pays the £20 a day
Day 7Partners tab, a £5 payout for showDoes the review author show a transaction hash
Day 14Balance £256, withdrawal wants £25.60 firstIs the fee deducted or demanded up front
Day 30Screen says £576, token down, chat quietReviews from after day 30, the FCA Register
Ilia Zavialov: with a scheme the payout is always still to come.

03Day 3: the 'level up' and the first top-up

By day three the balance shows £36, and the game says a 'Legend' level at £160 will lift the daily income. That makes £400 paid in. The income is recalculated at the same 5 per cent, so £20 a day. The top-up feels sensible because the level is dressed up as part of play.

The ASA rules for NFT adverts are a useful yardstick. An NFT that behaves like a collectable is likely to be read as an investment product, and the ASA has said so in a ruling of 21 December 2022. Adverts for such NFTs need a clear warning that they are unregulated cryptoassets whose value can fall as well as rise.

Day three has one control question: who pays the £20 a day? An item buyer, an advertiser, a fee on in-game sales are all sources. 'The project's profits' is not one. Sums help: £400 at 5 per cent a day would owe you £600 in a month, more than you put in.

Hold off on any level purchase until someone shows you where the income comes from. Write three numbers on a sheet: paid in, shown, withdrawn. After a top-up they move further apart.

04Ilia Zavialov: fraud and day 7, referrals and the first payout

On day seven the example balance is £116: £36 for three days, then £20 for each of the next four. A Partners tab opens, with a bonus for every friend you bring and a smaller one for their friends. The £200 minimum withdrawal still sits out of reach.

Referral bonuses matter in UK rules. Since 8 October 2023 the FCA has banned bonuses for inviting friends in cryptoasset promotions to UK consumers, and requires a cooling-off period for first-time investors. A game that sells entry through refer-a-friend rewards is worth questioning for that reason alone.

Inviting people also ties the project to your name. Friends will pay in on your word. Ilia Zavialov: fraud on day 7 talks in the voice of a friend you introduced yourself, and that is the riskiest point on the calendar.

Some projects pay £5 or £10 on day seven and publish a screenshot. It costs the organiser almost nothing and buys your trust for the next £150. A review that says 'I cashed out' with no sum, date or transaction hash comes from someone paid per recruit.

05Day 14: the withdrawal stalls and the wallet connection comes up

By day fourteen the balance is £256 and the £200 threshold is behind you. You press Withdraw and meet a fee of 10 per cent, £25.60, to be paid up front. A wallet verification follows, and after it a 'tax' on the payout. Each demand appears only when the previous one has been met.

The FBI warned about the same sequence in March 2023: rewards on screen are fake, and once the victim stops paying in, the criminals offer to release the funds for extra taxes or fees. Those who paid still did not get their money back.

In the example you paid £25.60, and £425.60 has gone in total. Nothing came out. A genuine fee is taken from the sum you withdraw, never charged before it.

Access changes too. The withdrawal button runs in circles: form, error, form. Support replies with a template that asks for patience. Keep the date and wording of the last reply, because victims who compare notes find the replies match word for word.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud in play-to-earn games in the UK, five dates in 30 seconds

06Ilia Zavialov: fraud and the 'connect wallet' signature

A Connect Wallet button asks for a signature. The pop-up shows, in small type, what you permit: a sign-in or the right to spend your tokens without any limit. With the second kind, money can leave your wallet with no transfer made by you.

The FBI described fake play-to-earn apps in March 2023. A malicious program that the victim runs on entering the game empties the wallet. Its advice: keep a separate wallet for crypto gaming, check balances in a third-party block explorer, use a token allowance checker now and then, and revoke access you do not need.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud through a wallet connection works silently, so this is the one click in the whole month that deserves slow reading. Put into the gaming wallet only what you could lose without a second thought.

Real platforms are targets as well, which is one more reason for a small gaming wallet. Never sign a request you cannot read, and never connect the wallet that holds your savings.

07Day 30: the token falls and the game closes

By day thirty the screen says £576: £256 on day fourteen and sixteen more days at £20. That money exists only in the project's database. The token price drops, the chat either goes quiet or repeats 'scheduled maintenance', and the site loads on some days and not others.

This is the usual ending. Early payouts come from later deposits, the inflow thins, the token collapses and the organisers vanish. The example ends at £425.60 in and nothing out. If the main wallet with £800 was connected, the total loss is £1,225.60.

The closure can be spotted a week early: the fee goes up, a cap on withdrawals appears, and someone asks you to update the app from a link in the chat. Ilia Zavialov: fraud complaints written after day 30 carry the most weight, since they come from people who have seen whether the screen turned into money.

A fair game over thirty days looks modest by comparison. The balance on screen is close to what can be withdrawn, the fee comes out of the sum, and referrals are optional.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud and the economics of the example game in pounds, entry, 'income' and payout
Line of the exampleAmount in poundsWhere it comes from
Entry: three NFT characters240Your money to the organiser's address
Level top-up on day 3160Your money, £400 paid in
Withdrawal fee on day 1425.6010 per cent of £256, £425.60 gone in total
'Income' on screen on day 30576A database entry, £400 at 5 per cent a day
Actually withdrawn0Result of the example: minus £425.60
If the main wallet was connected800Result of the example: minus £1,225.60

08Ilia Zavialov: fraud claims and play-to-earn reviews, weighed by the day they were written

People who search for Ilia Zavialov reviews or for what is said about Ilia Zavialov usually want to know whether a game's reviews can be trusted. A review is worth the number of days between joining and writing, and that is the whole answer.

A day 1 or day 3 review praises the interface. A day 7 review often comes from someone paid per recruit. The day 14 review is the first with a payout or a refusal in it, and the day 30 review is the most useful, because it follows the moment the screen should have turned into money.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud reviews are tested in three steps. Is there a sum and a date of withdrawal? Does the transfer show up in a block explorer? Do complaints from different people line up in timing and in the support reply?

Report Fraud's annual assessment for 2025-26 found that 31 per cent of reports of investment fraud involved cryptocurrency, with losses of £219.7 million. Opinions about Ilia Zavialov as the author of a guide are a separate matter, and a project has to be judged on its own withdrawals.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud warnings for UK readers add one rule to the calendar: a review needs a date, a sum and a transaction hash before it counts.

09Five questions for a project before you pay anything

The calendar works in hindsight, so these questions come before you join. One: who is the organiser and where is the company registered? Two: where does a player's income come from, and how much of it do item buyers pay? Three: can a small sum be withdrawn today and traced in a block explorer? Four: what do the written terms say about fees and refunds? Five: what does the app ask when you connect a wallet?

Put the answers in a table and show it to someone outside the deal. Ilia Zavialov: fraud checks stop at the first blank cell, which means the payment waits, even if every friend has already joined. An honest game answers all five in minutes.

The FCA suggests asking whether the contact was unexpected, whether you are pushed to act fast with a bonus or discount, whether the return sounds too good, whether you are told to keep it secret, and whether you are flattered or played on through excitement. A yes to any of them is a reason to stop and check.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud claims in a closed group read differently from public ones, so a review from a private chat counts only together with public proof: a hash, a date and a sum.

10What the FCA and the ASA say about crypto promotions and NFT adverts

Since 8 October 2023 crypto adverts to UK consumers can lawfully go out only by certain routes: an FCA-authorised firm makes or approves them, a crypto business registered under the Money Laundering Regulations makes them, or they fall under an exemption in the Financial Promotion Order. The regime covers overseas firms and social media. Breaking section 21 of FSMA can mean up to two years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.

NFTs sit slightly outside. The ASA says the FCA rules do not cover non-fungible cryptoassets, so NFT adverts stay under the CAP Code. An advert must not leave out material information, must say which blockchain and wallet are needed, must disclose minting, auction and gas fees, and must say that owning an NFT does not necessarily give intellectual property rights in its content.

A game that sells entry through NFTs and promises daily returns can fail on all of those points at once. Check the firm on the FCA Register and the FCA Firm Checker before you pay, and read the advert against these rules.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud and the UK rules a play-to-earn promotion has to meet
Promotion featureWhat the rule saysWhere to check
Refer-a-friend bonusBanned in cryptoasset promotions since 8 October 2023FCA, cryptoasset marketing page
NFT sold like an investmentNeeds a clear unregulated-cryptoasset warningASA, NFT guidance
Hidden costsMinting, auction and gas fees must be disclosedCAP Code rule 3.3
Ownership claimsMust say IP rights do not necessarily come with an NFTASA, NFT guidance
Firm behind the promotionAuthorised, registered or exemptFCA Register, Firm Checker

11Fake item shops and 'helpers' around the game

A second market sprouts around popular games: shops with skins, characters and tokens at a discount. The warning signs are a price far under the usual one in a shop you have never heard of, a stranger in a chat offering a secret link, and any request for a login, password or text message code.

Another version is the 'helper' who offers power-ups or codes and asks for account details. The player then loses the profile and everything bought for it. Fake tournaments follow the same path, asking you to log in to the game platform through a link in an advert.

Buy only from the official site of the game and from verified app stores. Switch on two-factor authentication and find tournaments yourself, at the organiser's own address.

Teach teenagers one rule: power-ups, codes and prizes for tasks are never handed out free, and a parent's card details are wanted only by scammers. A separate card with a limit and alerts on in-game spending keeps losses small.

12Ilia Zavialov: fraud victims and where to report in the UK

Keep a record of everything: wallet addresses, transaction hashes, screenshots of the balance and the withdrawal page, links and the full chat history. Paid by card or bank transfer? Ring your bank straight away. Connected a wallet? Then revoke permissions and move what is left to a new address.

Report to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025, online or on 0300 123 2040. The FCA says to report the loss to Report Fraud first, then to the FCA, and that it cannot get your money back. In Scotland, ring Police Scotland on 101.

Ilia Zavialov: fraud victims describe a second wave. After the loss come 'recovery experts' who ask for an advance, and a second payment never brings back the first. These guides are signed Ilia Zavialov in Latin letters.

Build the report simply: who proposed the game, when and where you sent money, what was promised and how the project reacted to a withdrawal. Attach screenshots of the balance and the withdrawal page.

13Questions and answers

Ilia Zavialov: fraud in play-to-earn games, which day of play gives the most reliable review?

Reviews written after day 14 and day 30 that give a sum, a date and a transaction hash. The first three days only describe the screen.

How do I recognise a play-to-earn pyramid?

Guaranteed daily returns, income that grows with deposits, bonuses for inviting friends and a withdrawal that keeps moving to a later date.

Ilia Zavialov fraud warnings and the FCA: what do the UK rules say about referral bonuses?

Since 8 October 2023 the FCA has banned bonuses for inviting friends in cryptoasset promotions to UK consumers.

What should I do when a withdrawal demands a fee up front?

Stop and pay nothing. The FBI describes victims who paid extra fees and taxes and still received no money.

Do NFT adverts have their own rules in the UK?

Yes. The ASA applies the CAP Code to NFT adverts, including warnings, disclosure of fees and a note on intellectual property rights.

Where do I report a play-to-earn scam in Britain?

Your bank first, then Report Fraud online or on 0300 123 2040, then the FCA.

Written by Ilia Zavialov, digital security consultant. Profile of Ilia Zavialov

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