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 s 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 s through various means, including trying to "trick" Epic's own team, and even had the chutzpah to sell a guide to help others do the same.
"Strock takes control of other players' Epic Games s through fraud," says Epic's filing. "Strock s Epic's player team and pretends to be the holder of the he is trying to steal … Epic has caught Strock attempting to deceive its player team at least four times."
The suit goes on to detail an alleged attempt on June 16, 2023 when Strock ed Epic's player team to change the email on what he claimed was "my ," providing certain information that ordinarily only the true holder would have. Epic adds "another method of gaining access to players' s is to find email address and combinations for other, non-Epic-related s on the Internet (e.g., via dark web searches or data breaches), and attempt to to Epic's services with those credentials."
Once Strock had gained access to s, Epic alleges "he sells it through an online message board or 'channel' on the Telegram platform." The suit gives an example of one 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 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 s, as well as his guide on how to manipulate Epic player .
Epic says "Strock has sold access to hundreds of other players’ Epic Games s, 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 s. Long story short, Epic alleges Strock was obtaining s 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 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 a video to their own YouTube itting 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 "don your Ariana Grande skin, and start doing the floss.
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