{"id":96145,"date":"2019-01-15T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=96145"},"modified":"2019-01-15T07:17:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T15:17:04","slug":"hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit Game Fortnite\u2019s VBucks Used for Widespread Dark Web Money Laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fortnite Battle<\/em> Royale<\/a> has become an online cultural phenomenon. The free-to-play survival shooter garnered 125 million players within a year of its release, leading to concerns that its addictive qualities and use of in-game currency and loot-box microtransactions are introducing children and teenagers to the dynamics of gambling.<\/p>\n

\"Fortnite
Epic Games\u2019 cartoonish shoot-em-up Fortnite Battle Royale<\/em> is the game of the moment, but is Epic doing enough to prevent illicit practices surrounding its VBucks ingame currency? (Image: Epic Games)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, a joint investigation by the UK\u2019s Independent<\/em> newspaper and cyber security firm Sixgill has revealed that criminals are using Fornite\u2019s<\/em> in-game currency, VBucks, as a tool to launder money on the dark web.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the game\u2019s mind-boggling popularity, fraudsters are buying VBucks using stolen credit card details, which can then be sold on the internet at knockdown prices to no shortage of customers.<\/p>\n

Global Operations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Posing as potential buyers, Sixgill employees said they had uncovered fraudulent operations in Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and English.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminals are executing carding fraud and getting money in and out of the\u00a0Fortnite<\/em>\u00a0system with relative impunity,\u201d Benjamin Preminger, a senior intelligence analyst at Sixgill, told\u00a0The Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreat actors\u00a0are scoffing at Epic Games\u2019 weak security measures, saying that the company doesn\u2019t seem to care about players defrauding the system and purchasing discounted V-bucks\u2026 This directly touches on the ability of threat actors to launder money through the game.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Skin Gambling Scandal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fortnite\u2019s<\/em><\/span> publisher Epic Games has been more careful about its controlling its in-game currency than some developers in recent years and has largely avoided the third-party skin gambling industry that surrounded games like CounterStrike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and FIFA.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2015, a multibillion dollar illegal gambling industry sprang up around CSGO<\/a> and the trading of skins — collectable designer weapons obtained via loot boxes. The ability for skins to be transferred to third-party sites via a loophole in Steam\u2019s OpenID API allowed them to be used for gambling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Valve was slow to denounce the industry it had inadvertently created, leaving it open to claims that it was facilitating underage gambling. Lawsuits followed, forcing the company to act.<\/p>\n

Account Closures<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fortnite contains no such loophole and, unlike CS:GO\u2019s skins, the trading of VBucks is not permitted. Forums are full of players complaining their accounts have been closed by Epic because they bought VBucks from a third-party source or shared their account with a third party.<\/p>\n

But according to Preminger, the developer is still not doing enough to prevent illicit behavior surrounding its game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEpic Games doesn\u2019t seem to clamp down in any serious way on criminal activity surrounding\u00a0Fortnite<\/em>, money laundering or otherwise,\u201d he told The Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile completely stopping such criminal activity is extremely difficult, several steps could be taken to mitigate the phenomenon, including monitoring the transfer of high-value goods in the game, identifying players with large stockpiles of V-bucks, and sharing data with relevant law enforcement agencies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortnite Battle Royale has become an online cultural phenomenon. The free-to-play survival shooter garnered 125 million players within a year of its release, leading to concerns that its addictive qualities and use of in-game currency and loot-box microtransactions are introducing children and teenagers to the dynamics of gambling. Now, a joint investigation by the UK\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":96146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,24066,3313,3312],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHit Game Fortnite\u2019s VBucks Used for Dark Web Money Laundering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fortnite Battle Royale VBucks used to clean money stolen from credit cards on the dark web, according to investigation by the Independent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hit Game Fortnite\u2019s VBucks Used for Dark Web Money Laundering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fortnite Battle Royale VBucks used to clean money stolen from credit cards on the dark web, according to investigation by the Independent.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-15T15:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-15T15:17:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/fortnite-ps4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/\",\"name\":\"Hit Game Fortnite\u2019s VBucks Used for Dark Web Money Laundering\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/fortnite-ps4.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-15T15:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-15T15:17:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Fortnite Battle Royale VBucks used to clean money stolen from credit cards on the dark web, according to investigation by the Independent.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hit-game-fortnites-vbucks-used-for-dark-web-money-laundering\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/fortnite-ps4.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/fortnite-ps4.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Epic Games\u2019 cartoonish shoot-em-up Battle Royale is the game of the moment, but is Epic doing enough to prevent illicit practices surrounding its VBucks ingame currency? 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