How to verify a Discord Early Supporter account before you buy

Discord's Early Supporter badge went to people who bought Discord Nitro before 10 October 2018, when Nitro was still new, as a thank-you to its first paying users. It can't be earned any more, so the only way to get one now is to buy an account that already has it. That scarcity is why Early Supporter listings are faked and misdescribed so often.

This guide covers the checks to run before you release escrow funds. Go through them in order.

What the Early Supporter badge actually is

The Early Supporter badge appears in the row of badges on a user's profile. Discord added it automatically to qualifying accounts; nobody had to apply for it.

What to know about it:

• It stays on the account for good, whether or not Nitro is still paid for, and it stays when the account changes hands.
• It can't be bought from Discord, moved to another account or earned again.
• It dates the account. Because the badge needed Nitro before October 2018, a real Early Supporter account was registered before then. That age gets the account past the account-age rules some servers set, and collectors like it too.
• Discord's Terms of Service don't allow selling or transferring an account without Discord's written approval, and Discord can act against accounts it finds were sold. Escrow protects your payment; it can't protect the account from Discord.

Why Early Supporter accounts get faked

Buyers pay more for the badge, so scammers fake it. Three tricks come up again and again:

1. The seller edits a profile screenshot to paste the badge onto an ordinary account. Once you log in, there's no badge.
2. The seller runs a browser extension that injects CSS to draw a fake badge on their own screen during a screen share, then removes it after the sale.
3. The seller shows you a real Early Supporter account while you negotiate, then hands over the login for a different one. This is a bait-and-switch.

All three fall apart when you check the account yourself, as described below.

The pre-purchase verification checklist

Run every check inside the Discord app, not from screenshots. Do it after the seller hands over the login in the deal chat and before you confirm receipt in escrow.

1. Log in to the account yourself

Don't accept a screen share as proof. Ask for the actual login (email and password) in the deal chat while your payment is held in escrow. Handing over the login of the account being sold is a normal part of the deal. If the seller won't do it, walk away. It's the clearest warning sign there is.

2. Open the profile pop-up

Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner of Discord to open your profile. If the account has badges, they show in a row near the display name and username.

3. Confirm the badge visually

A real Early Supporter badge:

• sits in the row of badge icons on the profile, next to any others the account has
• shows the name "Early Supporter" in a tooltip when you hover over it
• still shows when you look at the profile from a different Discord account, on your own device

If hovering shows no tooltip, the badge is fake. The last check matters most. A CSS overlay or an edited screenshot only exists on the seller's screen, and what Discord shows you on your own device is the real profile.

4. Check the "User Settings → Nitro" page

Open User Settings (the gear icon) and go to Nitro. If the account has an active subscription, you'll see the plan details. If Nitro has lapsed, as it has on many Early Supporter accounts, you'll see an option to subscribe instead. That's fine, because the badge doesn't depend on a current subscription.

What isn't fine is an error on the page, a sign that a Nitro payment was refunded or charged back, or any hint that the account was flagged for fraud. Ask the seller to explain anything like that before you go further.

5. Verify account age independently

A real Early Supporter account was registered before October 2018. Cross-check it:

• Open the account's full profile and read the "Member Since" date for Discord yourself.
• If the seller still has Discord's original welcome email, that's good supporting evidence.
• Scroll back to the oldest messages the account has sent in servers it's still in. Old messages back up an old registration date.
• Turn on Developer Mode (User Settings, then Advanced), right-click the account and choose Copy User ID. A Discord ID is a "snowflake" that stores the account's creation time in its first 42 bits, and lookup sites such as discord.id turn it into a date. It should be before October 2018.

6. Check for red flags in the account

While you're logged in:

• Check which email address is on the account (User Settings, then My Account) and that it has been verified.
• If a phone number is linked, the seller has to remove it before the handover, or they could get back in through SMS recovery.
• If two-factor authentication is on, the seller should switch it off so you can set up your own, or give you the backup codes for this account. Without one or the other you can end up locked out.
• Look in the account's email inbox for new-login alerts. Several recent logins from different countries suggest the account is being shown to more than one buyer at once.
• Any servers the account owns stay with it. Make sure none of them are scam servers that could get the account banned.
• Look for messages from Discord's Trust & Safety team, in the inbox and in Discord itself. A flagged or recently appealed account is a liability.

7. Change every recovery option before confirming

This is the step that actually secures your purchase:

1. Change the password straight away.
2. Change the email to your own. Discord sends a confirmation to the new address, so click it.
3. Remove the linked phone number, or replace it with yours.
4. Turn on 2FA with your own authenticator app and keep the backup codes offline.
5. If you can, wait a day before confirming and check you still have full access. Your payment stays held until you confirm, so there's no clock forcing you to hurry.

8. Only then confirm escrow

When every check above has passed, confirm receipt in your EPICSWP deal. That releases the payment to the seller and the account is yours, so treat it as the last step.

Common seller excuses and what they really mean

What to do if you've already been scammed

If the badge turns out to be fake, act before you confirm receipt:

1. Open a dispute in your EPICSWP deal. You can open one any time before you confirm. A human moderator reviews the deal chat and the evidence and decides, and if the seller described the badge as real, the chat shows it.
2. Don't contact the seller anywhere else. Keep everything in the deal chat, where the moderator can see it.
3. Take screenshots of the account as it is now, without the badge, and of any sign that the profile was edited.
4. Report the seller with the listing's report button so other buyers are warned.

Once you've confirmed receipt, the payment has gone to the seller, which is why confirming comes last. If you'd paid the seller directly by PayPal, Cash App or bank transfer, the money would most likely be gone for good.

---

You can browse Discord listings on EPICSWP. Your payment is held in escrow until you confirm receipt, and Aegis, the site's assistant, watches deal chats for common scam patterns.