There are people used Fortnite's in-game currency to launder money.
The popular online game Fortnite's in-game currency called V-bucks, has been reported being used by some people to launder money on the dark web.
There has been an investigation conducted by The Independent with the help of the research by cyber security firm Sixgil that discovered that V-bucks are being sold in large quantities in black markets on the dark web, a hidden part of the internet that cannot be found by using traditional search engines. Although not all people are capable to get an access to the dark web, the money laundering operation has been spread like a wild fire on the open web because the operation has been advertised on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter.
The investigation discovered that cybercriminals can purchase V-Bucks from the official Fortnite store by using stolen credit card details. With that, they were able to "clean" the money by selling the V-bucks a discounted rate to players.
"Criminals are executing carding fraud and getting money in and out of the Fortnite system with relative impunity," Benjamin Preminger, a senior intelligence analyst at Sixgill said.
According to Preminger, Epic Games' employed weak security measure on its game Fortnite that's why cybercriminals have been taking full advantage on the current situation. He accused the game developer "doesn't seem to care about players defrauding the system and purchasing discounted V-bucks."
Epic Games gained popularity as it raked in $3 billion in profit last year because of its Fortnite's overwhelming success. As of now, it is unclear how much money cybercriminals have made by exploiting the game.
Amid the populariy that the company is gaining, it received some negative feedback from some of its customer. Just recently, it received an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau because it fails to address hundreds of complaints from concerned customers, Washington Post reported. According to BBB, the non-profit organization, whose focus on advancing marketplace trust, Epic Games received more than 270 complaints. Majority of the complaints are about customer service issues and problems with refunds and exchanges. Unfortunately, most of the complaints were never addressed by the tech company.
Epic Games reponded to the statement released by BBB. On January 10, a spokesman for Epic Games said that the company is not affiliated with the organization. He added that the company has "redirected all player submitted complaints from the BBB to our Player Support staff."
