Fortnite turns into a crime scene? New reports suggest money laundering inside the popular game

With super powers come great responsibility. It’s a saying often heard in the films of fictional heroes, but it also applies to a number of examples in reality. Take Fortnite: Battle Royale for example, which has become the main face of the video game world of our generation

The famous Epic Games title, which earned a fortune of more than $ 2 billion last year according to the latest statistics, has a greater responsibility than ever to protect its users. it recently became an ideal playground for all types of organized crime. From abduction and exploitation of children to money laundering, a number of cases have been revealed began to raise panic among parents worried about the safety of their children.

A new Variety report has revealed that Fortnite has had a bigger problem than Nerf or Buff, which is affecting one of its favorite weapons, namely, providing a digital arena suitable for money laundering. According to the report, a number of digital security experts from the Sixgill Foundation discovered criminal networks in Fortnite of Chinese, Russian, Spanish, English and even Arabic origins that carry out money laundering operations through the digital game currency V-bucks.

The currency mentioned is a digital balance that provides the holder with the ability to purchase different costumes, tools and other Season Pass contents. This currency is filled with real money, so it provides an easy and simple way for criminals to launder the money of stolen credit cards, where V-bucks often end up on Ebay and Dark web sites.

“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, told Fox News.

“Threat actors [a malicious person or entity] are scoffing at Epic Games’ weak security measures, saying that the company doesn’t seem to care about players defrauding the system and purchasing discounted V-bucks … This directly touches on the ability of threat actors to launder money through the game,” he continued.

For its part, Epic Games has stated that it is acting with the problem of money laundering in a serious manner, as withdrawals and deception puts the players and the interest of the company at risk.

“As always, we encourage players to protect their accounts by turning on two-factor authentication, not re-using passwords and using strong passwords, and not sharing account information with others.”

Although Epic Games has proven to deal immediately with security vulnerabilities when a threat last week allows hackers to steal account information without needing a password, digital security experts still expect more from the giant company.

“Epic Games doesn’t seem to clamp down in any serious way on criminal activity surrounding Fortnite, money laundering or otherwise,” Preminger told Fox News. “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.”

Not only is it what is happening inside Fortnite, according to a report earlier this week, V-bucks became the most popular attraction for victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation criminals, raising awareness campaigns to warn parents and children not to accept exotic friendship requests and gratuitous gifts .

Fortnite Battle Royale is now in its seventh season, bringing new changes to the map, adding new aircraft, new fashion and more.