'Ultimate Team' scheme: EA hackers charged for stealing in-game coins
Anthony Clark has been charged by the Northern Texas District Court with a count of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud for his role in a scheme to automatically generate and then re-sell the digital coins used to purchase perks in FIFA Ultimate Team on the PlayStation and Xbox console lines.
The "Ultimate Team" mode allows players to construct their own football squad using virtual player cards. Those cards are purchased with virtual currency that can be bought or earned through in-game accomplishments (such as playing online matches).
Those virtual coins can be traded between users and are commonly sold outside of the game for real-world money via unauthorized black market sites.
According to the FBI's indictment of Clark, he and three others used a specially crafted app to trick EA servers into giving them in-game currency by sending in fake "completed game" reports and getting the coins as a reward.
Having used the application to fraudulently "mine" the coins, the group then connected with re-sellers in Asia and Europe, who purchased the bulk loads and then re-sold the coins to players.
The FBI believes the scheme netted Clark and his co-conspirators, one of whom has already taken a plea deal, millions of dollars from the re-sale of the stolen coins.
Among the tools used in the scheme was FIFA source code and developer tools the group allegedly obtained from the hackers behind the massive Microsoft, Valve and EA hacking spree. Two of those hackers, Austin Alcala and Nathan Leroux, are set to testify as witnesses in the case.
Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/14/ea_hackers_charged_for_stealing_game_coins/
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Comments
AdamuPosted:
That's is a crazy amount of money they made from that but as halo said they should of stopped after a few thousand that way they wouldn't of got caught but they got greedy and now they deserve everything that is going to come to them
BondsPosted:
Halo Good, they deserve it. This group supposedly earned $15-18 million. That's an insane amount, they should have made just a few grand off of this scheme and called it quits. I don't know how you expect to earn that much off of something like this and think you're going to get away with it. But oh well.
Yeah it's crazy, I think they deserved it but you have to admire the hustle. They even bought a lambo apparently
HaloPosted:
Good, they deserve it. This group supposedly earned $15-18 million. That's an insane amount, they should have made just a few grand off of this scheme and called it quits. I don't know how you expect to earn that much off of something like this and think you're going to get away with it. But oh well.
RobPosted:
How stupid can you get was it rlly worth getting a prison sentence for in game tokens? That's just crazy
9ntyPosted:
Yeah saw this and posted this on Twitter, thirsty young hackers trying to get the best players on the game but then they'll get caught as they've been.
RIP
RIP
SunderPosted:
I didn't actually know it was possible for steal coins, I knew there was boting/auto buying but stealing coins, nah, they're just going to crash the games economy
EarnPosted:
I read an article about this and they made $15 - $18 million dollars. I knew these guys made good money but I didn't realise it was that much. Absolutely insane.
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