Following a report final week of a ransomware assault on Epic Video games that allegedly made off with practically 200GB of knowledge, Epic now says the entire thing was in reality “a scam“—and so does the group that claimed credit score for it within the first place.
The assault, reported on February 28 by Cyber Each day, was supposedly carried out by a hacking group calling itself Mogilevich, presumably adopting the identify of infamous Russian crime boss Semion Mogilevich. The group mentioned it had obtained 189GB of knowledge within the assault, together with “e-mail, passwords, full identify, fee data, supply code and lots of different knowledge,” and was providing it on the market, with a pay-up deadline of March 4.
The entire thing appeared a bit suspicious from the outset: No particular ransom quantity was set, nor was any proof offered that the hack had truly taken place, which is pretty commonplace observe for this kind of factor. For its half, Epic mentioned there was “zero evidence” the declare was authentic, and that its efforts to contact Mogilevich had gone unanswered.
Positive sufficient, when the ransom deadline arrived Mogilevich admitted that the entire thing was a rip-off: A brand new Cyber Each day report says a hyperlink that purportedly contained the stolen Epic knowledge as a substitute led to a message promoting the group’s providers as “skilled fraudsters.”
“Not one of the databases listed in our weblog have been as true as you may need found not too long ago,” a consultant of the group calling themselves Pongo wrote. “We took benefit of huge names to realize visibility as shortly as attainable, however to not [gain] fame and obtain approval, however to construct meticulously our new trafficking of victims to rip-off.”
The message explains how Mogilevich used faux claims of hacks and “social engineering” to extract ever-increasing sums from victims, starting with gross sales of its hacking providers (which did not truly exist) to eight folks for $1,000 every—an quantity that was boosted to $2,000 every as soon as they agreed to pay—and ultimately resulting in what Mogilevich claimed was an $85,000 fee for supplies taken in a hack of drone maker DJI, though the group has once more offered no proof that the payoff truly occurred.
However now the jig is up: Migolevich has confessed to the true nature of its crimes, and Epic has confirmed that it was not hacked.
“Our investigation has concluded,” Epic tweeted. “The group’s claims have been by no means authentic – this was a rip-off.”
As for why the hacker-fraudsters spilled the beans in any respect, it seems to be a case of the traditional villain flaw: Mogilevich desires to brag.
“This was finished as an instance the method of our rip-off,” Pongo wrote. “We do not consider ourselves as hackers however reasonably as prison geniuses, in the event you can name us that.
Pongo added that they imagine they’ve “taught lots of people, particularly Epic Video games, a lesson” that stories of hacks and ransom claims truly had the other of the supposed impact: They finally did “nothing [more] than promote us by enlarging our fraudulent community.”
In fact, as Cyber Each day famous, none of that rationale is verifiable, and it is also attainable that Mogilevich knew Epic wasn’t going to play ball and determined to stake just a little declare to fame whereas it nonetheless might. Regardless of the motive, and nevertheless many individuals have been truly taken for a trip by this rip-off, it is yet one more reminder to watch out on the market: Because the Russians wish to say, belief, however confirm.