No, You Can’t Buy Google Drive Storage on eBay

If you want Google Drive cloud storage, you need to buy it directly from Google. Scammers often try to sell Google Drive storage through unofficial channels, such as eBay, Twitter, and Reddit—do not fall for this scam, as it’s a waste of money that may compromise your privacy.

Here’s how this works; a scammer creates (or steals) a bunch of Google accounts, each with a cloud storage subscription. Then, the scammer sells the username and password for each of these accounts at an unusually low price. When someone buys one of these accounts, it works—it’s a real account. But the scammer eventually changes the account’s password so it can be sold to someone else.

Of course, this is assuming that Google doesn’t intervene. When a scammer sells a Google account, it violates the company’s EULA. Either way, you will lose all of the data you uploaded to the secondhand Google Drive. And the person who sold you this account may dig through your Drive.

Most of these Google Drive scams are for the “unlimited storage plan,” which is only offered through G Suite. From what we can tell, some scammers are flat out lying about unlimited storage, while others create real G Suite accounts using fraudulent business or educational credentials. (Ironically, the latter scenario is actually worse for the buyer. Google is good at finding and shutting down fraudulent G Suite accounts.)

And this scam isn’t exclusive to Google Drive. You’ll also find eBay listings for Dropbox accounts, Minecraft accounts, Netflix accounts, and more. In every case, the goal is to hand over an account’s login credentials, wait a few weeks or months, change the account credentials, and resell it to a new victim.

We’re not sure why eBay allows this nonsense on its platform. The scammers who sell these subscriptions often have several hundred positive reviews, indicating that these scams are lucrative and long-lasting. Again, if you want Google Drive storage, buy it from Google.