Earlier this week, a group claimed to have successfully hacked Epic Games, making off with 189GB of data, including information on users. However, they’re now walking back on these claims, saying that they faked the entire thing so they could scam actual hackers.
The group, known as Mogilevich online, says that it did this by telling would-be hackers it would sell them the tech used to get into Epic Games. Of course, if the hack didn’t happen in the first place, then the tech and data they sent on would be useless – if they sent any at all. Mogilevich says that it sold this material to eight buyers, all without providing proof that they could hack a company like Epic.
Alarm bells were raised early on when, unlike other hackers, Mogilevich didn’t share any proof that the hack had taken place.
This latest development is being reported by Cyber Daily, and comes just days after the “hack” was first reported. Mogilevich claimed to have made off with “emails, passwords, full names, payment information, source code” from its attack on Epic and was seemingly trying to ransom the data back to the company.
But now, Mogilevich has completely changed its story. We can’t verify if the group’s version of events is true or not, as it’s very possible that they did pull off a hack and this is all misdirection. However, it does line up with what Epic has said on the matter, as it previously told TheGamer that there was “zero evidence” that a hack had taken place at all.
We are investigating, but there is currently zero evidence that these claims are legitimate. Mogilievich has not contacted Epic or provided any proof of the veracity of these allegations.
“You may be wondering why all this, and now I’m going to explain everything you need,” says a member of Mogilevich, reportedly speaking on a page that it initially claimed would contain material from the Epic hack. “In reality, we are not a ransomware-as-a-service, but professional fraudsters.”
Mogilevich explains its process, saying that faked the operation so it could gain new contacts to scam. The group says that, in this regard, it all went according to plan, as would-be hackers apparently sent over tens of thousands of dollars.
“We don’t think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that”, the statement reads. They admit that their aim was to gain access to new “victims to scam”, although hopefully, these victims don’t include Epic Games employees and users.
Epic is yet to comment on this development.
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