Jan 19
Jan 19
Epic’s Fortnite Battle Royale is making the company a ton of money, despite it being a free game. This revenue is generated by selling in-app purchases such as costumes. However it seems that a chunk of this change could actually be used by criminals to help launder their money.
This is according to a report from The Independent in which they claim that V-bucks, the game’s in-game currency, are being purchased using stolen credit cards. The currency is then sold to other players at a discounted rate, which in turn gives the criminals “clean” cash compared to if they had used the credit cards to make other kinds of purchases.
Speaking to the publication, Benjamin Preminger who is a senior intelligence analyst at Sixgill said, “Criminals are executing carding fraud and getting money in and out of the Fortnite system with relative impunity. Threat actors [a malicious person or entity] are scoffing at Epic Games’ weak security measures, saying that the company doesn’t seem to care about players defrauding the system and purchasing discounted V-bucks… This directly touches on the ability of threat actors to launder money through the game.”
It is unclear as to how much profit these criminals are said to have made, and it is unclear if Epic is doing anything to curb it. When reached for comment by The Independent, the developer has yet to respond.
Report Claims That Fortnite’s V-Bucks Are Being Used To Launder Money , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 19
Image credit – WABetaInfo
WhatsApp is admittedly a bit late to the sticker game. Other apps such as Facebook Messenger, KakaoTalk, and LINE have long offered its users stickers. However it seems that the Facebook-owned company might have found a way to quickly spread its stickers and that is by integrating it with third-party keyboard apps.
According to a report from WABetaInfo, it appears that WhatsApp will be integrating its stickers with Google’s Gboard keyboard app. Since Gboard already has a Stickers Panel to allow users to send stickers to their contacts while chatting with them, the integration of WhatsApp stickers means that users will be able to pull stickers from their WhatsApp sticker collections.
At the moment the ability to send stickers through WhatsApp does seem a bit confusing as the feature is not immediately obvious. It is also not particularly intuitive either since you’ll have to search for the sticker you want, versus other apps such as LINE that can suggest stickers based on the word you type.
It is also reported that the integration with Gboard means that Gboard users can send Google’s own stickers through WhatsApp which will be converted to be compatible. At the moment it seems that the feature is currently being tested internally at Google, but it is possible that other third-party keyboards could get the feature in the future as well.
WhatsApp Testing Sticker Integration With Google’s Gboard , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 19
Chicago community organizer William Calloway said the ex-officer deserves to “spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
Jan 19
Fans of the original Star Wars trilogy know the new films can’t stand up to the originals. There are plenty of Star Wars toys out there, but if you have a penchant for Return of the Jedi and Funko POP! collectibles, get excited.
There are now Funko collectibles of Wicket W Warrick, Leia dressed as she was in the Ewok village, Han Solo, Emperor Palpatine, and Lando Calrissian. The Electrocuted Darth Vader is definitely the coolest with his blue face. You need him and the Emperor for your collection.
The collection will ship starting this February, and can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth.
[via ComicBook]
Jan 19
Please Let Me Explain My BlackBerry
Posted in: Today's Chili
A week before CES, I finally pulled the trigger and swapped my SIM card from my sputtering iPhone 6S to a new BlackBerry Key2. The decision to switch to the BlackBerry, like many the best decisions I’ve made in my life, was driven by a combination of whim, nostalgia, and spite. Given that we’re upon the 20th…
Jan 19
Jan 19
Fyre Fight: The inside story of how we got two warring Fyre Festival documentaries in the same week
Scott Tobias,
The Ringer
We’ve known for a while now that Hulu and Netflix were both working on documentaries chronicling the ill-fated influencer…
Jan 19
Last week Bungie announced that they would be separating from Activision and will also be retaining the rights to Destiny, which they plan on self-publishing in the future. It was unclear as to what would become of the franchise moving forwards, but in a new blog post shared on Bungie’s website, the developer has stated that they will remain committed to the franchise.
According to Bungie, “Long-term, Bungie is committed to Destiny. We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands. The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you’ve been building since 2014. We’re going to keep doing that.”
They add, “We’re thinking about what it means to be truly independent, what it means to self-publish, and crucially, what Destiny’s future can now look like for our players.” Previously it was reported that despite Bungie splitting from Activision and taking Destiny with them, Destiny 3 could still be on track for a release in 2020 which is in line with Bungie’s release schedule of Destiny games so far.
In the meantime Destiny 2 will continue to be supported by Blizzard’s Battle.net where the game was at one point in time offered for free, so if you had already claimed your free copy, you can still play it and launch it through Battle.net without any issue.
Bungie Says That They Will Remain Committed To Destiny , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jan 19
Boo’s humans said his “heart literally broke” after the death of his best friend, Buddy.
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