A line reading “AUTH RIOT GAMES” on your bank or credit card statement is an AUTH Riot Games charge, meaning a payment Riot Games has authorized or processed for digital content in one of its titles — League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, or 2XKO. It usually represents a purchase of in-game currency such as Riot Points, VALORANT Points, or KO Points. If you don’t recognize it, the charge may be a forgotten purchase, a pending hold left over from a failed transaction, or an unauthorized use of your payment information.
What the Charge Is and How to Check It
Before assuming fraud, confirm the purchase isn’t one you forgot or that someone else in the household made. Riot lets you review your transaction history by signing in through the support portal for the game in question; once authenticated, the system shows past purchases of in-game currency and content tied to the account.1Riot Games Support. Checking Your Purchase History
If the line on your statement shows as “pending” and you never finished a purchase, it’s likely a failed transaction. Riot’s support documentation explains that when a card transaction fails but a pending charge appears, the bank typically holds the funds for three to five business days and then releases them; Riot never actually receives the money. If the charge moves from pending to completed and you still didn’t receive the currency, Riot asks players to submit a support ticket.2Riot Games Support. Credit Card Transactions FAQ
Getting a Refund From Riot
Riot’s global refund policy allows a refund on unused, eligible content within 14 days of purchase. Refunds go back to the original payment method as long as that method supports refunds; credit cards and PayPal generally do, prepaid cards generally don’t.3Riot Games. Global Refund Policy Several categories are classified as non-refundable: bundles, event passes, chests, boosts, gifts, and anything earned through gameplay.4Riot Games Support. League of Legends Refund Policy
In League of Legends and PC Teamfight Tactics, every account carries three refund tokens that can be spent on eligible content purchased within the past 90 days, even after the standard 14-day window closes. One token is restored per year if you’re below the three-token cap. 2XKO has no in-client refund option; you have to submit a support ticket.3Riot Games. Global Refund Policy
One boundary matters here. If the purchase ran through a third-party storefront — Apple’s App Store, Google Play, the PlayStation Store, Xbox, or Samsung Galaxy Store — Riot cannot refund it. The refund has to go through that platform’s own process.3Riot Games. Global Refund Policy
If the Charge Wasn’t Authorized
If someone else got into your Riot account and made purchases, Riot’s terms require you to notify the company immediately so it can investigate.5Riot Games. Terms of Service For confirmed account compromises, Riot reverses the unauthorized purchases and restores any refund tokens that were spent during the breach.4Riot Games Support. League of Legends Refund Policy Contact Player Support through the official portal at support.riotgames.com to start.6Riot Games Support. Riot Games Player Support
Riot’s terms also put responsibility on the account holder for charges that result from shared login credentials or weak security, such as a missing second factor.5Riot Games. Terms of Service That isn’t a refusal to help, but it means locking the account down quickly matters.
Purchases by a Child
Riot carves out a specific exception for purchases made by children. The Wild Rift refund policy explicitly covers “any purchase made by kids under 18 years of age without parental knowledge or consent,” and parents or guardians are directed to open a support ticket for review.7Riot Games Support. Wild Rift Refund Policy The League of Legends refund page points users to Player Support for unauthorized purchases by family members as well.4Riot Games Support. League of Legends Refund Policy
For prevention, Riot runs a Parent Portal that lets parents set spending limits on a child’s account and see total spending over the past 30 days. Those limits only cover purchases made directly through Riot’s own platforms; mobile app store and console purchases have to be managed in those platforms separately.8Riot Games Support. Riot Games Parent Portal
Disputing the Charge With Your Bank or PayPal
If Riot’s support process doesn’t resolve the issue, or you’re confident the charge is fraudulent, you can dispute it with your card issuer. Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, you can dispute billing errors, including unauthorized charges, in writing within 60 days of the statement date. The issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, capped at 90 days, and you aren’t required to pay the disputed amount or related finance charges while the investigation is open.9Federal Trade Commission. What To Do if You’re Billed for Things You Never Got or You Get Unordered Products FCBA liability for unauthorized charges is capped at $50.10CNBC Select. Who’s Responsible for Kids’ Unauthorized Credit Card Charges
For a PayPal payment, the window is different. PayPal gives you 180 days from the transaction date to report an unauthorized charge through its Resolution Center, and if the transaction is confirmed as unauthorized the account holder is not held liable and is eligible for a full refund. PayPal recommends ruling out a forgotten recurring payment before filing.11PayPal. Unauthorized Transactions
In the UK, you also have chargeback (available for debit and credit card transactions within 120 days) and, for credit card purchases between £100 and £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.12Consumer Voice UK. Digital Content Consumer Rights
Why a Chargeback Is a Last Resort
A chargeback through your bank will succeed in reversing the charge, but it also affects the Riot account the purchase came from. The moment a chargeback is processed, Riot suspends the account. If the charge was a gift, both the gifting and receiving accounts are suspended. Even a fraud alert or request for information from a card issuer can be treated as a chargeback by Riot’s system, and multiple chargebacks on the same account can result in a permanent ban.3Riot Games. Global Refund Policy
If an account is locked after a chargeback you want to reverse, Riot runs a repayment portal at re.pay.riotgames.com where you can log in and repay the outstanding balance to restore access.13Riot Games. Riot Repayments On VALORANT, if the content tied to a chargeback can’t be removed, Riot deducts the equivalent in VALORANT Points, which can push the balance negative; the same approach applies to KO Points in 2XKO.3Riot Games. Global Refund Policy If you want to keep the account, work through Riot’s support team first.
Preventing Future Unauthorized Charges
Multi-factor authentication is the most effective way to keep this from happening again. Riot offers three MFA options: the Riot Mobile app (which allows QR-code login), a third-party authenticator such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator, and email-based verification codes.14Riot Games. Get Rewarded for Enabling 2FA Email MFA has to be activated first before you can set up the Riot Mobile or authenticator-app methods.15Riot Games Support. Multi-Factor Authentication How-To FAQ
To turn it on, sign in at account.riotgames.com, find the Multi-Factor Authentication card, and click Enable; a confirmation email completes setup. After that, any login requires a six-digit code along with the password.15Riot Games Support. Multi-Factor Authentication How-To FAQ
Riot’s account protection guidance also recommends using a strong, unique password (several unrelated words strung together), securing the email account linked to Riot, confirming that login URLs point to authenticate.riotgames.com, and never sharing credentials. If you’ve signed in on a device you no longer use, the Login Management card on the account page has a “Log Out Everywhere” function that revokes trusted-device status and forces re-authentication. If you suspect the account has already been compromised, submit a support ticket right away.16Riot Games Support. Protecting Your Account