Epic Games & Security problems
It’s no secret that Epic Games have been slightly struggling with security as of late. With Fortnite Battle Royale becoming one of the most popular games right now, it’s no surprise.
On discussion boards such as Epic’s forums and Reddit, players have been noticing large payments of up to $149 going out of their PayPal accounts and Credit cards. Receipts point towards Epic Games transactions.
This is mainly due to hackers firstly accessing the accounts. Then, they purchase the highest tier of PvE, also known as Save the World. The reason for doing this is because the Limited Edition comes with extra codes for the Standard Edition.
These extra codes are then being auctioned online, providing the hackers with a decent inflow of cash. Kotaku covered this in great depth.
If you’re lucky, Epic Games will respond to your emails and refund you the money that was taken quickly. Otherwise, you’re best being patient and hoping for a response when a support rep can get back to you.
If you need to contact Epic Games regarding your account, use this link here to go to the support centre.
Influx of ‘Locked account’ emails
To prevent accounts being hacked, Epic Games have started to lock accounts for 2 hours that have had multiple login attempts. These have been going around a lot, I even got one myself.
I wasn’t too surprised. I knew my details including emails and passwords have been leaked online at least nine times so far. You can check to see if you’re own details have been compromised for yourself at haveibeenpwned.
Unfortunately, this current solution by Epic Games doesn’t really help the customer in many ways. Locking a player out of their own account for two hours because someone else has tried to login doesn’t make much sense. If you work a lot and don’t have much time, you’re out of luck.
If you have received these emails yourself, don’t panic. Your account is still safe for now, as it can’t be accessed for at least another two hours. It also means the hackers failed to access your account, possibly using brute force attacks or old passwords you may have used.
Whilst you can’t prevent your account from being locked at the moment, you can take extra steps to secure it. Epic recently introduced two factor authentication.
Two factor authentication provides that much needed extra layer of security. When you login, either from a new browser or after 30 days, a code will be sent to your email that you will have to input to actually reach your account.
If you don’t plan on purchasing any V-Bucks for the foreseeable future, it may also be wise to disconnect any credit cards of PayPal accounts from your Epic Games account settings. Just to be on the safe side.
