by Epic Games took a Fortnite cheater to court in Australia, and the end result was that the cheater publicly apologized, closed his business selling cheated and compromised accounts, and paid Epic damages, which the company will donate to charity. .
According to documents obtained by GameSpot, the Australian Federal Court found that Brandon Despotakis, better known online as BlazeFN–Violated the Fortnite End User License Agreement (EULA) and Terms of Service, infringed Epic’s copyrights, and illegally sold in-game accounts and cheats to other players. The ruling comes a year after the proceedings began in April 2021.
The BlazeFN store’s illegal item lists include aimbots, limited-time “Full Access V-Bucks accounts,” and “dormant” accounts that included rare or popular skins and pre-filled battle passes, among other illegal offers. Artwork for the various items in BlazeFN’s shop were made to resemble the Item Shop from Fortnite.
It’s unclear how many cheats and accounts were actually sold or if other similar legal proceedings are taking place, following the ruling in favor of Epic and against the illegal store BlazeFN. It can be assumed that those who purchased BlazeFN accounts will also be subject to in-game penalties, at the very least, though it’s not known if Epic is specifically going after those buyers. Selling or buying accounts in Fortnite is a violation of the game’s terms, even when there is no cheating involved.
Epic offered a statement on the subject in general: “Selling compromised player accounts and cheating technologies puts people’s information at risk and ruins the experience of people playing the game fairly. We take the illegal sale of these items and we will persecute everyone. options available to make sure our games remain fun, fair and never pay-to-win.”
Despotakis posted his own statement on Twitter on May 9, one week after the agreement was reached, according to the Consent Order. In it, he explicitly told potential buyers not to ask him any more about Fortnite cheats or player accounts. “I would like to apologize to the Fortnite community. What I did was illegal and gave players an unfair advantage over other people who follow the rules. I will never do this again.”
As part of the settlement, Despotakis must also pay damages to Epic in an amount agreed upon by both parties. The total of those damages, although not shared with GameSpot, will be donated to Child’s Play, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents in children’s hospitals around the world.
GameSpot may earn a commission from retail offers.
