Fake Ransomware Gang Admits It Made Up Epic Games Hack

A fake ransomware gang has said it lied when it claimed to have hacked Fortnite maker Epic Games.

A group calling itself Mogilevich had claimed to have accessed Epic Games data and threatened to release its data unless it was paid. But Epic itself denied it had been hacked, and now Mogilevich has admitted the scam.

Cyber Daily quoted a Mogilevich spokesperson who said the group tried to trick hackers into buying hacking tools. “In reality, we are not a ransomware-as-a-service, but professional fraudsters,” the spokesperson said. “None of the databases listed in our blog were as true as you might have discovered recently. We took advantage of big names to gain visibility as quickly as possible, but not to fame and receive approval, but to build meticulously our new trafficking of victims to scam.”

“Now the real question is, why confess all this when we could just run away?” the spokesperson continued. “This was done to illustrate the process of our scam. We don’t think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that.”

As Cyber Daily points out, even this confession may be a lie. But what is clear is Mogilevich is not behind a hack of Epic Games or any other organization. Indeed, Epic Games itself had issued a statement insisting there was “zero evidence” Mogilevich’s claims were legitimate.

“Mogilievich has not contacted Epic or provided any proof of the veracity of these allegations,” Epic said in a statement issued to Eurogamer. “When we saw these allegations, which were a screenshot of a darkweb webpage in a tweet from a third party, we began investigating within minutes and reached out to Mogilevich for proof. Mogilevich has not responded. The closest thing we have seen to a response is this tweet, where they allegedly ask for $15k and ‘proof of funds’ to hand over the purported data.”

While this case is a scam, video game companies are on high alert after a series of hacks in recent years that have resulted in the release of stolen data.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.