Part 6: RTW Success, but sad news for SC2

Today I'd like to hit on a small success story for the Death2Botters blog. RTW, while not approving of the blog, did take the cheating sites' memberlists I sent them and compare the lists to game subscribers. Here's information from one banned user who tried to get his account back, but had the door slammed in his face by RTW.

While only one user posted about this experience with RTW comparing the membership lists of cheat sites, I will assume that others were banned this way too. I would like to thank some of the people who helped me scrub through the lists from different sites for forum usernames and in-game usernames to be highlighted in the report sent to RTW.

Sad News for Starcraft 2

The hacking community has had access to Starcraft 2 throughout their beta and have already published and begun selling their hack to customers by the time SC2 was released. While not as popular as FPS aimbots, SC2 has gotten its share of attention on 2 of the hacking sites I monitor. One site (the one I use for display purposes) has had moderate success in hacking the game and recieved a fair number of new members since the game released. It is safe to assume the majority of new members within a few weeks of a major game release are subscribing for that game. Trolls take note: I said majority, not all. Dispute all you want.

Since my first post that showed the nearly 2000 people that joined one site in the APB time frame, this particular site has blocked its members list from being searched and collected like I had previously done, so I cannot offer you numbers on SC2, but I would estimate roughly 100 new members joining for the SC2 cheat, and who knows how many previous members use the cheat without reading the forums.

I also wanted to include a shot on Aion, as the game originally had a huge 3rd party bot problem at its release. The Aion development team spent countless hours on preventing these types of hack/botting programs from entering the game, and while hugely successful (entire guilds were shut down), there still remains a botting community of decent size for the game. Note that while Aion has collected this many posts and views over the course of a year, it barely keeps up with the numbers APB had in its first month.

Finally, onto those of you who continue to say that this site merely advertises for these cheaters and cheat sites and makes the problem worse. Take close note of this: The cheaters are bothered by this site and its contents. They often make posts about the Death2Botters blog with increasing concern. The information that this blog contains as well as the information I've provided to RTW has forced the cheat sites to take security measures to attempt to protect their members by blocking member searched. It has caused them to change their hacks' injection methods and functionality, and has shown would-be hackers that those that are hacking, are getting banned (however slowly). Numbers of people subscribing to the hack sites (for APB) after the creation of this blog declined sharply. Whether or not that is because of lack of interest in APB, or partially influenced by this blog is unsure.

Until next time readers,

The San Paro Saint

Part 5: RTW Quits Caring

First off, for those following my blog, I'm sorry about the delay since the last post. I've been out of town on business.

I would like to announce that I have had numerous emails from people wanting to help assist me in this effort, and have accepted some who have been able to provide a great level of assistance in collecting information and cracking into some of the hacks. I want to extend a warm thank you to those involved. If you wish to assist me in any way, please email me at: i.hatecheats@yahoo.com

Recently, many hackers have received an email stating that they have been caught using a 3rd party program and are being WARNED. Insert serious WTF moment right here! WARNED? Who the hell warns a hacker? A company that realizes the MAJORITY of their player base is hacking, and if they ban all the hackers, they will lose significant revenue from the game.

If this alone does not cue you in to how many people are hacking in APB, then you have some serious issues. Now sure, there are those of you out there that will say "they are warning because they are not 100% sure". It is very possible, but the same people they are warning were using the same hacks that were initially caught and banned. They know the hack, they don't want to ban.

One thread of concern about the hack:

This email has gone out to a large majority of the hackers. Reports from multiple hack sites have shown that unpopular hacks with a small amount of subscribers have had accounts banned. The larger, more popular hacks have not had users banned. Reason: Money. They try to show the community that they are banning hackers, but don't want to lose too much revenue in the process. So banning hackers that use unpopular hacks (10~100) is much better than banning users that have the popular ones (500+).

Here is a copy of parts of a conversation that show concern over username/email similarities in hack sites and APB accounts. Reason: They have received my emails and emails from people assisting me containing lists of users and emails used to register on this site, accounts that mirror the hack sites are being flagged.

And finally, there is hope, however small. Every hack site that we have checked has had banned users:

For those who have questions about why I only post articles from one hacking forum, is that some of the other forums I have access to readily display my account information and identify me more easily than others. Also, I wish to retain access to all sites while only risking loss of access to one.

On a final note, my forums account has been banned by Toxico. An email was sent to me stating that RTW's community managers have banned my forum account because I continued to portray RTW in a negative way and was causing damage to their game's image and thus constricting their advertisement and accrual of new players. Apparently RTW is very sensitive about their hacking problem and continue to try to hide it to the best of their ability. As a result, I ask that you followers who agree with my blog continue to advertise it in the RTW forums by putting it in your signature so that others may learn more about this ongoing problem and gaming companies' around the world who can't compete with hacks.

Part 4: The San Paro Saint Says: Cheating is Dangerous

One thing that gamers turned cheaters often fail to understand is how these cheats work and the type of people they are buying their cheats from. The individuals selling these cheats are akin to the drug dealers of the internet gaming community. They are programming hacks that inject themselves directly into the processes and ram allocations running in your computer. This is EXACTLY the same thing that viruses do.

The hack/cheat salespersons are programming a stable virus for your game. If they can program this for the game, they are likely capable of programing worms and trojans designed to prowl your system for personal data for them to steal and sell. Not only did you just give these people your name, address, and credit card, but you gave them access to your computer and home network. What do you keep on your machine?

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Many of these hacks kick off anti-virus and firewall warnings; there is a reason for that. All of these hack sites tell you to just disable the antivirus or ignore the warnings. Wow, doesn't that sound off to you?

Now, I'll admit that some sites I collect information on do not have virus warnings in their programs, which really leads me to believe that some are shady hacks collecting your computer info and some are legit cheats. If there can be such a thing.

Bottom line: Don't cheat, winning in a video game isn't worth the risk.

Part 3: They call me the San Paro Saint

First off, I would like to thank those who have supported me in APB and continue to stand up for honest gaming. For those who would think I am anything other than an honest gamer, sorry you are mistaken. The only cheats I have ever used in a game in my life were when I played Nintendo, yes the first one. Don't think they had cheats for the Atari; none that I knew of. Cheating defeats the purpose of a game, it destroys the challenge of winning and ruins your mentality of being a competitive gamer. I honestly cannot see the point of playing a game using cheats to win or beat other people, because it is only lying to yourself. Sure you may get a reaction out of the other person, you may win and get your little emotional high that you can never get otherwise, but in the end thats it. No skill involved, no thought, just time wasted.

Cheating, in the end, is almost like paying for a hooker. You got the sex, but you didn't do the work to get there, and it only lasts until you blow your load.

This will likely be my last post covering this specific site before I move on to a new one that I've already established an account in preparation for the next set of blogs. I've got screenshots lined up for you guys and hopefully some more information on how these cheats work for developers. I'll not discuss too much about these images below, most are self explanatory.

First, an image of the hack from the site I first infiltrated. Not the number of games, and the method the hack works. The cheater downloads the inject for the game by clicking on the save button and they are done, most recent hack is always whats downloaded, so they never worry about missing an update.

This gives you an idea of the magnitude of these guys and their cheats and how they expand across a large genre of games that cannot cope with their methods. Developers appear to be unable to keep up with their inject methods to prevent these people from ruining games.

Just 1 day after APB turned PB 'on' the developers of this cheat confirmed the hack is undetected and PB cannot ban for their hack, here is one description of how the hack operates vs. PB:

And here, where their main developer, getting rich off of unskilled gamers looking for popularity with their otherwise 'l33t' kills, confirms the hack after PB enablement:

Finally, some good news; Some hacks by these groups of cheaters have been detected, although they appear to be the poorly made ones without skilled developers behind them.

Part 2: More of Damncheaters.com

I've gotten more of a reaction than I thought I would! Thank you for those in the community who have emailed me or supported my efforts in forums. It is imparitive that RTW/PB deal with these hack programs, else their game will lose subscription numbers quickly. Cheating/Hacking programs ALWAYS drive down the player base when companies fail to react and let these programs run rampant like the disease that they are. They are in strict violation of the ToS in a game, and companies need to pursue the cheaters more vigorously than just banning them after weeks of hacking.
All gaming companies should blacklist credit cards + name/address (prevents changing credit card) combos used on accounts that have been CONFIRMED hacking/botting on more than 2 games/accounts. This gives players their one warning, and allows for a mistake by the gaming company. Players that are placed on the blacklist should stay on for at least one year.

Why have gaming companies not done this? Money. Hackers/botters pay for the game just like you and I, and after their account is banned, they'll just create another one. Thats 49.99 more for a key and 14.99 more per month. In fact, its more profitable to ban a hacker after he is hooked on the game simply on the fact that most hackers will rejoin the game after a ban. This is why most companies wait at least a month before issueing out the first ban wave.

Onto Damncheaters.com:

They know they have a 'traitor' in their midst and had a decent conversation about me:

Feel the love, right?

Onto my main point. Damncheaters.com has grown almost 2,000 members since 12 June 2010, which is when the APB Key to the City event started and pre-order subscribers started playing. Now, that doesn't mean people who paid to use the bot, but thats 2,000 people interested or purchasing the aimbot hack. Thats a lot! The only two reasons an account would be registered on these forums is to: A) Post a question, or B) Buy the program. Non-bot purchasers can see the non-subscriber portion of the forum without registering an account. Note: THERE ARE LOTS OF MEMBERS WHO NEVER POSTED. These people most likely bought the bot and only read the forums since there is no reason to register an account if you are not going to ask a question or buy the hack.

THE SEARCH CRITERIA: USERS REGISTERD AFTER 12 JUNE 2010. 100 PER PAGE

THATS A LOT OF NEW MEMBERS IN JUST OVER A MONTH! To be fair, remember what I said about user registration.

What makes these hackers even more sad in the world of gaming is how they just absolutely thrive off of kicking your ass using the hacks. They get a high off of it and think its so cool! What they don't realize is the only people that think its cool is the other 2,000 people reading their post. The 10,000 non hackers.... They think your hacking e-peen is about the size of this period. They don't care about the game or its players, just about their rush. From the looks of things, most of these botters won't be around for the long run anyhow.

Below is only a portion of the posts in this forum stating many of these guys have once again started to use their hacks regardless of punkbuster's activation. Looks like PB may not be very effective at all:

If you have suggestions for my next hack target, please feel free to email me at i.hatecheats@yahoo.com

Part 1: Damncheaters.com

While what I'm doing is considered an attack on the cheating community, just let it be known that I'm tired and fed up of having to play with people who just can't live with their small e-peens and lack of gaming skills. These people actually have to buy cheating tools for their online games because losing makes them feel that much worse. Wow kiddos! Its just a game, don't you have some other positive reinforcement in your life other than that computer screen?

First up is Damncheaters.com

They have an decent hack that they claim is undetectable. It offers ESP, Radar, Always Run, and Aimbot hacks with multiple customization options and an in-game menu. The main programmer, netvortex, claims that the hack disables PB screenshotting as well. Below are images taken from their forums 1 day after the start of PunkBuster 'enablement' in A.P.B.

Notice the massive views of non-posting members trying to figure out if they can use the hacks they have paid for. This forum only counts ONE VIEW PER ACCOUNT.

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Hackers (paying subscribers to damncheaters.com) are already asking about hack safety so they don't lose their massively pumped up characters and accounts.

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1 Day after Punkbuster and the lead programmer confirms the hack is safe and other members have begun testing.

Here is an affirmation that the hack works a couple weeks back to appease the wondering masses

And finally, the best part of all. They have found my first Digg post and are trying to bury me so others don't see their precious site and block their precious hack. Its sad that they pay money for the game and then pay more money to win because they suck so bad.

*EDIT*

Discovered this nice tidbit after I made this post. This is for the gaming companies that are too lazy to fix how these hacks inject themselves, and for RTW and PB, to catch this specific hack.

The beginning

This blog is my attempt - however poor - to bring down the hackers and cheaters that have ruined APB and other games. Gaming companies won't spend the time or the resources to fight those that ruin game economies, player bases, and fairness. I'll spend it for them.