The Old Republic is a strange beast. It has more than 1 million registered forum accounts, more than 260.000 Facebook Likes and more than 25000 registered guilds and the game hasn’t even entered closed beta stage. There’s another oddity we are now seeing. There is a scam going around offering game testing access for money. Scam, for a game that is not out yet. That must be some kind of first.

All jokes aside, I can understand being eager to play the game, but giving money for something that you are not sure even exists should be a big no-no for everyone. If you receive an offer or and email telling you you can purchase access to the game testing program, know that your credit card info can be stolen, you can receive a non-legitimate game testing account and rest assured that even if the aforementioned plights do not strike Bioware will notice the account is now being played from another IP, town, state or country and will ban you for life. Let me spell that our for you F O R    L I F E. You don’t want that, now do you?

Here’s the official word on recognizing and avoiding this scam:

It has come to our attention that there are multiple individuals and sites claiming to sell testing accounts, “beta keys,” or other offers of access to our Game Testing Program. All of these offers are false. BioWare is not issuing invites to Game Testing via any method other than those we outline here on SWTOR.com.

We must caution you that these offers are often scams designed to steal your money, credit card information, or identity. While we understand that you are eager to participate in Game Testing, your security is extremely important, and attempting to participate in these offers could put you in very real danger.

Furthermore, the sale of accounts with access to the Game Testing Program is strictly prohibited by the Game Testing Agreement. We closely monitor the activities of all accounts involved in the Game Testing Program, and are quick to notice accounts that change hands. In the event that an account in the Game Testing Program does change ownership, we immediately take action to the fullest extent possible, including permanently banning the account from the Service.

You may also encounter e-mail scams that indicate you have been invited to the Game Testing Program. If you are invited to the real Game Testing Program, you will receive an e-mail with instructions from no-reply@bioware.swtor.com. Any other e-mail address claiming to offer an invitation is likely to be a scam. If you receive an e-mail and are in doubt or are concerned about its validity, please forward your concerns to bwacommunitysupport at bioware DOT com. If you do receive a genuine testing invitation from us, you will also be able to view the invitation and testing information at www.swtor.com/tester.

If you discover a scam pretending to offer access to the Game Testing Program, please forward all relevant information to us at bwacommunitysupport AT bioware DOT com. Your security and the security of your fellow community members is important to us, and we appreciate your help.