It might be a never-ending battle, but Epic has the resources and inclination to fight it.
Epic Games has announced it is suing an individual from Illinois, named in its suit as one Isaac Strock, for allegedly stealing hundreds of Fortnite accounts which he then re-sold through Telegram.
An anti-cheat update from Epic links to the suit, filed on February 27, in which it alleges that Strock obtained access to the accounts through various means, including trying to “trick” Epic’s own support team, and even had the chutzpah to sell a guide to help others do the same.
“Strock takes control of other players’ Epic Games accounts through fraud,” says Epic’s filing. “Strock contacts Epic’s player support team and pretends to be the account holder of the account he is trying to steal … Epic has caught Strock attempting to deceive its player support team at least four times.”
The suit goes on to detail an alleged attempt on June 16, 2023 when Strock contacted Epic’s player support team to change the email on what he claimed was “my account,” providing certain information that ordinarily only the true account holder would have. Epic adds “another method of gaining access to players’ accounts is to find email address and password combinations for other, non-Epic-related accounts on the Internet (e.g., via dark web searches or data breaches), and attempt to log into Epic’s services with those credentials.”
Once Strock had gained access to accounts, Epic alleges “he sells it through an online message board or ‘channel’ on the Telegram platform.” The suit gives an example of one account sold on September 12, 2024, which had 146 skins and a small amount of V-Bucks and was sold for “$425 worth of Bitcoin.” On the day this account was put up for sale, Epic found it had been accessed from Strock’s IP address.
Strock’s personal website is also included in the suit, though it is now offline, on which he claimed to have sold 482 Fortnite-linked “products.” Epic further alleges Strock ran a Telegram channel where others sold illegally obtained Fortnite accounts, as well as his guide on how to manipulate Epic player support.
Epic says “Strock has sold access to hundreds of other players’ Epic Games accounts, boasting online about thousands of dollars in profits.”
An important element of the suit is the EULA, which Strock has agreed to multiple times, and under which Epic prohibits the transfer of items and the buying or selling of accounts. Long story short, Epic alleges Strock was obtaining accounts through deception and profiting from it, as well as costing the developer time and money through its efforts to combat it, and of course defrauding the original account holder who loses everything. Strock is yet to respond.
Epic has been on a tear against Fortnite cheaters and hucksters of all descriptions, and one of its most notable weapons is publicity: It is setting out to publicly name and shame these people where it can. Just last month we reported on a player who was caught cheating in a major Fortnite tournament, who as part of the settlement had to upload a video to their own YouTube admitting wrongdoing, donate his winnings to charity, publicly apologise, and then take a lifetime ban.
No one likes a cheater and, while companies obviously have to be careful about what behind-the-scenes information they share, Epic has clearly made a decision to be transparent where it can and let the huge Fortnite playerbase know when it’s fighting these battles.
Epic is also learning as it goes, recently instituting a “second chance” for first-time offenders, tweaking the hardware requirements for tournaments with cheaters in mind, and continuing to take action against any nefarious behaviour it finds. The sweet smell of justice: It’s enough to make you want to log in, don your Ariana Grande skin, and start doing the floss.
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