Earlier this week, Epic Games set the collective Internet ablaze when it was discovered that certain suggestive emotes were no longer allowed to be combined in Fortnite. In other words, "Gooning" had been banned.

A few days later, Epic re-lit the ongoing fire by announcing a sweeping level of enforcement, particularly on the Xbox platform, that will see accounts with fraudulent or refunded V-Bucks or cosmetics purchases have their items revoked entirely.

Multiple Exploits Were Discovered, Then Closed Up

On Friday, in a post shared on social media, it was announced that items that had been refunded on Xbox or were gifted via a fraudulent account had been removed.

Shortly after, a follow-up post noted that the revocations were for accounts who made refunds beginning in December or took advantage of a known exploit involving fake V-Bucks.

If all that sounds confusing, here's a breakdown.

In one set of circumstances, as noted by one gamer, players would "purchase" V-Bucks legitimately, then initiate a refund through Microsoft. The refund would be processed, and the V-Bucks, which should've been removed, instead remained on the account, giving players a loophole to receive "free" cosmetics.

In another set, as detailed by someone on Reddit, players would reportedly purchase accounts that had been loaded with V-Bucks, often at amounts that were far lower than what legitimate currency would cost. They'd then "gift" those V-Bucks to their main account. Those accounts, almost always from grey market sellers, were involved in fraud, leading to the revocation of anything "gifted."

Not only have dozens upon dozens of players had their items revoked, but in certain instances, it's led to players having a negative V-Bucks balance due to the mass amount of currency that they did not legally have. "You can reverse a negative V-Bucks balance by purchasing V-Bucks to cover the amount owed," a post on Epic's website notes.

It would appear that, until the V-Bucks balance returns to neutral, those players would be unable to get new skins or items. The lesson in all this being, if it's too good to be true, it likely is. Also, don't commit fraud.

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Fortnite

Survival Battle Royale Systems 9.3/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 84/100 Critics Rec: 94% Released September 26, 2017 ESRB T for Teen - Violence Developer(s) Epic Games Publisher(s) Epic Games Engine Unreal Engine 5
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