In Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), mlbb top up behavior and account blocking correlate, but this correlation is subject to payment channel compliance. According to Moonton in its 2023 announcement, about 23% of the illegal accounts that got banned in the year encompass illegal recharge (black cards, third-party substitute charges), whereby the chance of unofficial channel players is 12.5% and the official channel users contribute just 0.3%. For example, in the Indonesian market in the third quarter of 2023, the number of accounts blocked due to third-party charging (the price is 30% lower than the official) reached 480,000, accounting for 17% of the global total, and the technical vulnerability of the charging platform led to a payment failure rate of as high as 18%, triggering the risk control system to automatically mark abnormal accounts.
The risk control model of the official payment system has a direct impact on the blocking rate. In 2023, MLBB’s advanced AI anti-fraud system increased the abnormal top-up detection rate (e.g., three orders of 6480 diamonds within a day) to 99.1%, and the false seal rate decreased from 0.7% to 0.2%. According to statistics, the top-up success rate of mlbb using Google Play and Apple Store is always 98.5%, while the third-party alternative platform because no SSL encryption protocol (only 32% of the platform meet PCI DSS requirements), the risk of leaking payment information increases the chance of account closure by 8 times.
Geographical variations in pricing exacerbate risks. In the Philippines, where diamond prices are 22% lower than in Turkey, 15% of accounts recharged via VPN across regions in 2023 were permanently banned due to IP address vs. payment card geography mismatch, and the median recharging value of such accounts was 1,500 pesos (about $27), with a success rate of only 3.5% after the ban. Simultaneously, Moonton partnered with local Indonesian payments service DANA to launch a region-constricted discount (10% deposit back on deposits larger than 100,000 IDR), increasing official channel repayment proportions from 61% to 79% while decreasing account block rates by 43%.
Patterns of player behavior are strongly interconnected with block rates. According to the sample survey for 2023, among the accounts with over $100 average monthly recharges, 8% caused risk control due to excessive incidence of refunds (dispute rate ≥5%), and 70% of such refund disputes are caused by failing to arrive. PayPal figures show that MLBB’s dispute processing time has reduced from 14 days in 2022 to 7 days in 2023, but the dispute rate is still at 2.3%, higher than Free Fire’s 1.1%. In addition, black accounts that use automated scripts to top up in bulk have an average daily top-up frequency of 15 times of normal users (peak 50 times/day), the median survival cycle of these accounts is only 3 days, and the blocking rate is close to 100%.
A typical case validates risk connections. In the “Black card filling event” of Brazil in 2022, stolen credit cards were utilized by criminal gangs to buy diamonds and sell them back at a 50% discount, and more than 70,000 accounts were frozen, the transaction value involved was $1.2 million, and the rate of successful appeals for players’ loss was less than 1%. In 2023, Moonton worked with Vietnamese authorities to arrest illegal proxy charging and shut down 12 platforms, resulting in a 55% quarter-on-quarter decline in the rate of local accounts banned. The research indicates that the 180-day account retention rate for the accounts recharged through mlbb top up official is 82%, but the replacement account is only 34%, and the risk of ban is negatively correlated with the user life cycle value (LTV) (r=-0.72).
Briefly, the compliant mlbb top up behavior alone will not block, but third-party charging, cross-region exploitation of vulnerabilities and payment fraud will significantly increase the risk. Players who use official channels (such as Codashop direct charge) can have the blocking probability below 0.5% in control, and Moonton compressed the response time of suspect recharge to 90 seconds with dynamic risk control (scanning 120 million transactions per day), and the overall account blocking rate decreased by 19% year on year in 2023, verifying the need for a secure payment system.