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Hacked Fortnite Players Say Epic's Response Is Too Slow

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A torrent of hackers have been breaking into Fortnite player accounts and stealing hundreds of dollars at a time. After weeks trying to contact Epic Games about the security threat, many of them say they’re being left high and dry.

Over the last few months, hackers discovered vulnerabilities in Epic Games’ client. In interviews, these Fortnite hackers have said that, because Epic doesn’t ask for extra verification prior to in-client purchases, they don’t have a lot of trouble breaking into accounts—so long as players’ info was already compromised in another data breach. Hackers enter accounts, purchase upgrades for the Fortnite Founder’s Pack and sell the free extra copies of Fortnite’s base game, Save the World. Right now, the hottest game is suffering a major hacking epidemic that some players say Epic has been too slow to address.

On March 13, Epic locked the account of a player named Robby after hackers had attempted to crack it too many times. Robby received an e-mail notification. Desperate to get in touch about the security issue and unlocking his account, he attempted to contact Epic through two links on the e-mail. After receiving no response, he tried to get into the “Account Help” page on the Epic website, but couldn’t log in, since his account was locked. “It infinite loops with no actual help,” he told me. “If your account was being hijacked, and actually taken, the e-mail address to stop that from happening doesn’t actually work.”

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Ten other Fortnite players interviewed say that, after their accounts were hacked, they heard no response from a human at Epic for over a week. Many just wanted to change their in-game information, get their accounts re-activated, or hear from a human about what was going on. One didn’t hear from Epic for 13 days about a theft of $300. For another, it was 9 days, $250. One player, Steve, has received over 3,000 notifications in 16 days that hackers have been attempting to break into his account (he has two-factor enabled). “I’ve been unable to reach Epic after sending in two support requests with multiple updates as well as tweeting at them a few times,” he said. “I’m just trying to cancel my account and stop this email assault.”

Reached for comment, Epic says that the hacking attacks are their “highest priority,” adding, “Friend Codes in Save the World Founder’s Packs were the main reason that accounts were being compromised. As of yesterday, the Founder’s Packs that include Friend Codes are no longer available in the store.” Since December, Epic says they have made their support team seven times larger. “We’re working to double it again,” the representative added.