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15 arrested on suspicion of selling PUBG hacks

15 arrested on suspicion of selling PUBG hacks

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds' war against the hackers and cheaters continues with 15 Chinese nationals arrested on suspicion of developing and selling hacks.

That's according to a post on the game's Steam forums, in which developer PUBG Corp says that on April 25th, these people were arrested after it was confirmed they had been handling 'malicious code'.

As well as hacks, it seems that this also included Trojan horse software that could steal user data.

These users have been fined $5.1m.

"15 major suspects including “OMG”, “FL”, “火狐”, “须弥” and “炎黄” were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions," read a translated statement from Chinese police.

"Currently the suspects have been fined approximately 30mil RNB ($5.1mil USD). Other suspects related to this case are still being investigated.

Some hack programs that are being distributed through the internet includes a Huigezi Trojan horse*(Chinese backdoor) virus. It was proven that hack developers used this virus to control users’ PC, scan their data, and extract information illegally.”

This wave of justice follows Tencent picking up the publishing rights to Playerunknown's Battlegrounds in China. The tech and entertainment giant has been teaming up with local police to track down those making and selling cheats and hacks for the battle royale title.

Developer PUBG Corp has said that 99 per cent of cheaters are from China, with many in the userbase demanding the studio region lock China.

Things might get better once Tencent's version of the game rolls out; this being China, odds are it could be free-to-play which will be enticing to users.

Cheating is a massive problem for Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, with PUBG Corp having to delay content updates as it wages war on bad actors in the game.

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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.