Fortnite players exploiting a glitch to obtain more X-Box digital currency are now in digital V-Bucks debt.
Epic Games, owner of the Fortnite franchise has cracked down on a complicated loophole that some players took advantage of to boost their in-game balance books.
The popular Epic looter-shooter has become a microtransaction machine, dropping costly new cosmetics on a weekly and sometimes daily basis to entice users, and nefarious methods are often used as a means to pick these up more cheaply.
V-Bucks debt for cheaters
Certain workarounds in gaming can net players a small-term advantage or boost their balance for popular titles like Fortnite. This particular scam was dubbed “the Argentina method” by users on Reddit.
This digital fraud involved players using other countries, mainly Argentina, to acquire V-Bucks via a different version of the Microsoft online store. These players would then ask Epic for a refund on cosmetic items purchased via the scam and add more currency.
This method has come to a halt and these opportunistic Fortnite players are now waking up to a negative balance. The exploit was used prominently across the Fortnite community, but not all gamers had taken up the convoluted approach to adding more ill-gotten digital currency.
A well-known name in the Fortnite community NotPalo posted on X about the negative balance that scammers have been seeing:
Fortnite ha comenzado a retirar cosméticos y pavos que se hayan hecho con el método de Xbox que salió después del parcheo de Argentina.
Este método era literal estafar a Xbox, entonces por eso remueven todo.#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/gpg4avxJly
— NotPalo (@NotPaloleaks) April 16, 2024
“This method was literally scamming Xbox, so that’s why they removed everything,” he says.
FNBuzz, a community news provider would back up the news broken by NotPalo and share an image of a player in -6150 in V-Bucks debt on their socials:
Fortnite and Xbox are starting to remove and refund cosmetics from people who used a glitched Xbox method to obtain skins in Argentina.
People who did this Exploit are now starting to have a negative amount of vbucks.
(via @NotPaloleaks) #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/YTXyaZWHAE
— FNbuzz | Fortnite News (@FNBRbuzz) April 16, 2024
Epic Games have not responded officially to this specific issue, but have been blunt in their “Why was an item removed from my account in Fortnite?” stance on the official site.
“Do not purchase V-Bucks or any other content from third-party sellers or websites. Do not use any third-party websites offering V-Bucks giveaways,” Epic’s message reads.
Some scammers remain undaunted on the Reddit entry, saying “Turkey is cheaper” and “It was good whilst it lasted.” So there will no doubt be another digital domain that these players can flock to now the Argentina method has been wiped out.
Image: Epic Games.
