How much is Fortnite worth for Hackers? Over $1000 a week!

[Guest]

Hackers as young as 14 targeting Fortnite, selling players' information

Source: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/hackers-young-14-targeting-fortnite-selling-players-information-v1?variant=tb_v_1

 

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In an investigation carried out by the BBC, 20 hackers spoke about how they steal the private gaming accounts of players and resell them online.

Although free to play, Fortnite makes its money by selling add-ons and "skins", which allow players to change their character's look.

These add-ons make players easy targets for hackers who then sell on accounts to other players.

So a bit like CSGO.

 

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I woke up one day and my account was hacked," one 14-year-old victim who identity was not revealed told the BBC.

"The email said that my password had been changed and two-factor authentication had been added by someone else. It felt horrible," he said.

It was through venting his frustration on Twitter that he was approached to buy another’s account.

"Someone said I could buy an account for 25p and I could clearly see the account was worth a lot more," he says.

"I bought it."

The young player then turned to hacking himself.

"I was approached by a cracking team and they told me what it was and all about 'combos', 'proxies' and I guess they showed me how to crack," he said.

Another hacker the BBC spoke to said he made up to $NZ30,000 through the game and despite knowing it’s illegal carries on ripping off accounts.

It was quoted as 16,000 British pounds, so quite a lot of money. Personally if that's the type of money to be made, I wouldn't mind doing a bit of hacking myself, but I don't really know how to and am probably too busy, or rather should be too busy for that sort of thing. Hacking and selling on items associated with accounts is nothing new, but really this sort of money is quite surprising. 

[WereCatf]

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Personally if that's the type of money to be made, I wouldn't mind doing a bit of hacking myself

So, you're saying that you're fine with stealing from other people, as long as you can make a buck out of it? That doesn't give a particularly flattering image of you as a person.

[Fnige]

Wait... I've tried my best to stay away from Trumpnite and I could've done this the entire time!?!?

 

Welp. I missed an opportunity

[Fnige]

Just now, WereCatf said:

So, you're saying that you're fine with stealing from other people, as long as you can make a buck out of it? That doesn't give a particularly flattering image of you as a person.

Here he is

[Guest]

Just now, WereCatf said:

So, you're saying that you're fine with stealing from other people, as long as you can make a buck out of it? That doesn't give a particularly flattering image of you as a person.

1000 a week is twice my pay for doing a bit on the computer, with getting away with it, of course I'm interested. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

I guess this is why you get 2FA on everything related to everything, gives you as many layers of security as possible.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, RorzNZ said:

1000 a week is twice my pay for doing a bit on the computer, with getting away with it, of course I'm interested. 

It's more than I get the whole month, but I still wouldn't resort to stealing from other people. I'm not enough of an asshole to do something like that.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, WereCatf said:

I'm not enough of an asshole to do something like that.

And even then, it's not like Fortnite costs money either.

 

People just want the cosmetics and stats most of the time with this kind of stuff, because they want to appear cool to all their friends and everybody else. And they're not willing to actually put in the effort and time to get good enough to have the stats(which are all anyone really cares about anyway), which is why they resort to this kind of BS.

[Guest]

Just now, WereCatf said:

It's more than I get the whole month, but I still wouldn't resort to stealing from other people. I'm not enough of an asshole to do something like that.

Once you're a bit older you'd understand. To me these are just in-game items that can probably be recovered with a call to Epic Games support, where I'm always worried about money. Obviously I'm not going to do this, but if I knew how, and how to get away with it, its a bit of a no-brainer. Like scrumping. 

[WereCatf]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

Once you're a bit older you'd understand.

Quite an assumption, there, considering you have no idea about my age. I'm 36 and I'm not suddenly going to change my mind about stealing from other people. Besides, even little kids can understand the concept of other people's property.

 

No, stealing from other people -- virtual stuff or not -- is an inherently asshole, selfish thing to do, no matter how you spin it.

[schwellmo92]

20 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

1000 a week is twice my pay for doing a bit on the computer, with getting away with it, of course I'm interested. 

That's just game account stealing in a nut shell, it's been around forever. I used to do it when I was young (12-17), but thinking back on it now I was a total d***head, it's completely unethical to steal someone elses things, physical or virtual it doesn't matter.

[schwellmo92]

16 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Once you're a bit older you'd understand. 

How old do I have to watch out for before I become a d***? Apparently it's greater than 26.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Quite an assumption, there, considering you have no idea about my age. I'm 36 and I'm not suddenly going to change my mind about stealing from other people. Besides, even little kids can understand the concept of other people's property.

 

No, stealing from other people -- virtual stuff or not -- is an inherently asshole, selfish thing to do, no matter how you spin it.

You can put it that way but then again you can never be in someone else's shoes can you. Not as if the users can't get their account back anyway, so will have to agree to disagree. Very easy to criticise someone on the internet, and that does go both ways. 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, schwellmo92 said:

That's just game account stealing in a nut shell, it's been around forever. I used to do it when I was young (12-17), but thinking back on it now I was a total d***head, it's completely unethical to steal someone elses things, physical or virtual it doesn't matter.

Well don't have a go at me when you've actually stolen accounts and I've just thought about it for the money. It's one thing to consider it, but another thing to actually do it. 

[schwellmo92]

3 hours ago, RorzNZ said:

Not as if the users can't get their account back anyway, so will have to agree to disagree.

But then the person that bought the stolen account lost their money, and the person that had their account stolen wasn't able to play for X days and had to go through a recovery process, and the game developer has to hire support staff to handle these situations, etc, etc.

 

It's not as clear cut as you make it sound. You sell a stolen account to some guy, the account gets recovered, the guy who bought the account charges back the funds he transferred you, what then? You've also got the issue of how do you clear those funds, that's dirty money and has a trail, how do you actually spend it?

[williamcll]

Spending money on cosmetics is the first problem.

[Trik'Stari]

17 hours ago, williamcll said:

Spending money on cosmetics is the first problem.

Sooner or later it will die off. The market will either be over-saturated with options or the gaming community as a whole will realize that it's a very bad way for companies to bilk them for unearned cash, and stop buying.

 

The sooner, the better. Glad I never bought into Fortnite or PubG or Overwatch.

[Crunchy Dragon]

18 hours ago, williamcll said:

Spending money on cosmetics is the first problem.

This is probably why nobody has tried to break my Epic account yet, it's not worth much.

 

I've got some pretty alright stats, but next to nothing in terms of cosmetics. Why? Because I just don't care.

[mynameisjuan]

23 hours ago, RorzNZ said:

Well don't have a go at me when you've actually stolen accounts and I've just thought about it for the money. It's one thing to consider it, but another thing to actually do it. 

But its another thing to consider it and not see it as a shit thing to do. 

 

There is one thing to say wow, $1000 a week. But to say I am interested if I wasnt busy is a way to say I am a douchebag who is willing to profit by fucking other people over. 

23 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

(although admittedly it's like those idle couch thoughts on "how does one rob an 18th century bank")

Not the same for this dude. Literally said if he could do it without getting caught he would.

 

There are moral thoughts and then there are asshole thoughts. 

[mynameisjuan]

4 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Why? Because I just don't care.

More because you probably enjoy just playing the game. I dont understand how people spend money on cosmetics and dances. But to each their own I guess.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, mynameisjuan said:

More because you probably enjoy just playing the game. I dont understand how people spend money on cosmetics and dances. But to each their own I guess.

For the most part, I do enjoy playing the game.

I just get what I can from the free pass and I'm happy.

 

Other than the initial purchase, for most games, I tend to never want in-game items or DLCs. The exception is Destiny 2, which I enjoyed enough to want the DLCs.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mynameisjuan said:

But its another thing to consider it and not see it as a shit thing to do. 

 

There is one thing to say wow, $1000 a week. But to say I am interested if I wasnt busy is a way to say I am a douchebag who is willing to profit by fucking other people over. 

Not the same for this dude. Literally said if he could do it without getting caught he would.

 

There are moral thoughts and then there are asshole thoughts. 

Settle down lol just words on a page. You don’t have to agree with what I say. Of course I know it’s not a great thing to do, originally just to exemplify 1000 is a hell of a lot of money to me, and doing this is just as bad as Piracy, both are stealing. Everyone has thoughts like these from time to time, what if you could count cards? Insurance fraud? Treat people with homeopathy? I just write them down.

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

More because you probably enjoy just playing the game. I dont understand how people spend money on cosmetics and dances. But to each their own I guess.

At one point in time I had thought I would never spend money on cosmetic items in games but then I figured out that if I play the game enough i would. I play alot of overwatch to the point where I have gotten more than my money's worth even with all the money I have spent on cosmetics. I don't feel bad about spending money to buy items I want while supporting the developers of a game that I play almost every day. The great thing about cosmetics is that it doesn't effect gameplay so if you don't want to buy it you don't have to while of you want to you can. I think cosmetics is a nice way to monetize a game compared to some of the dumb ways that companies have tired in the past. 

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, RorzNZ said:

Settle down lol just words on a page. You don’t have to agree with what I say. Of course I know it’s not a great thing to do, originally just to exemplify 1000 is a hell of a lot of money to me, and doing this is just as bad as Piracy, both are stealing. Everyone has thoughts like these from time to time, what if you could count cards? Insurance fraud? Treat people with homeopathy? I just write them down.

I would have to disagree with you on that one. The only times I have thought about a crime I have also been fairly repulsed by the idea. Maybe I am weirdly empathetic person but I hate the idea of doing something that would harm others just to make my life better. 

[schwellmo92]

39 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

At one point in time I had thought I would never spend money on cosmetic items in games but then I figured out that if I play the game enough i would. I play alot of overwatch to the point where I have gotten more than my money's worth even with all the money I have spent on cosmetics. I don't feel bad about spending money to buy items I want while supporting the developers of a game that I play almost every day. The great thing about cosmetics is that it doesn't effect gameplay so if you don't want to buy it you don't have to while of you want to you can. I think cosmetics is a nice way to monetize a game compared to some of the dumb ways that companies have tired in the past. 

Completely agree and in the same boat on Overwatch, I’ve probably spent $200~ on cosmetics, but when I weigh up the amount of time I sunk in to it versus other games it still is good value. Cosmetics are a completely fine way to monetise.