Criminals Are Using Fortnite to Launder Money

The hugely popular Fortnite earned a whopping $3 billion in 2018 and attracted more than 200 million players worldwide. Cybercriminals have been using Fortnite's in-game currency, V-bucks, to launder money, according to the Independent. Virtual, in-game money laundering is old news. Back in 2013, a report by security researcher Jean-Loup Richet revealed that online games were becoming increasingly popular venues for criminals to "clean" their money through "the opening of numerous different accounts on various online games to move money." Most commonly, criminals would send in-game currency to their associates in other countries, who would exchange it for real, untraceable money. In keeping with Richet's observations, cybercriminals on Fortnite are using stolen cards to purchase V-bucks from the game's official store and selling them, discounted and in bulk, on the dark web.