Grand Theft Auto 6 doesn’t launch until November 19, preorders haven’t even opened yet, and there’s still no word on a PC version. None of that has stopped a crop of websites from telling fans they can buy “VIP early access” right now. Malwarebytes has looked at them, and the verdict is exactly what you’d expect: there’s nothing on the other end of the payment.
What the scam actually offers
The pitch is simple and effective. Pay “a few hundred dollars,” get into GTA 6 before everyone else. The catch is the payment method. These sites want crypto, which is the whole point.
Malwarebytes flagged the trend in a report this week, describing a fresh wave of sites built around the early-access hook. The company shared screenshots of several, and they’re not subtle. One bundles GTA 6 with Mr. Beast and Lego on the same page, presumably on the theory that three recognisable names are more convincing than one.
There is no early access to buy. You send the money, you get nothing, end of transaction.
Why crypto is the tell
The reason scammers insist on cryptocurrency isn’t aesthetic. Once you’ve sent it, it’s gone. There’s no chargeback, no fraud department to call, no realistic path to recovering or even reporting the loss in a way that gets your money back.
Compare that to a stolen credit card payment, where a bank can claw funds back and shut the merchant down. Crypto removes that safety net entirely, which is precisely why it’s the payment rail of choice for this kind of thing.
If a site selling you a game demands payment in crypto, that’s your cue to close the tab. It’s a decent rule for almost anything online, but it’s iron-clad here.
GTA 6 is “the perfect bait”
Stefan Dasic of Malwarebytes called GTA 6 ideal material for a scam, and he’s right. The franchise has sold hundreds of millions of copies. It’s been 13 years since GTA 5. The appetite for the sequel is enormous, and scammers don’t need to manufacture hype when there’s this much of it sitting around for free.
The easy assumption is that only kids fall for this. Dasic isn’t so sure, and neither am I. The sites lean on urgency and FOMO, the language nudges you toward an impulsive click, and they’re polished enough to pass a quick glance.
The murkier problem is that paying extra for “advance access” to a real game has become completely normal. Deluxe editions routinely sell early entry as a perk. So a fan who’s seen that a dozen times isn’t necessarily being naive when a site dangles the same thing. The format is familiar. That’s what makes the fake version work.
Malwarebytes doesn’t have figures on how many people are hitting these sites. But scams like this don’t survive on nothing. They persist because somebody always pays.
How to not get burned
A few things worth keeping straight while the hype builds:
- There is no GTA 6 early access right now. Not officially, not unofficially, not for any price.
- If Rockstar ever does sell some kind of “advance access,” buy it from official storefronts only.
- Any site demanding crypto for a game purchase is a scam. No exceptions worth the gamble.
Real preorders open on June 25. The game ships for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19, with the PC version still officially unannounced. Anything offering you more than that before then is selling a story, and charging you for the privilege of believing it.
Published: Jun 23, 2026 02:40 pm