Mom needs to be a mom: Instead of being strong with her 12-year-old son, an Ohio mom is suing the makers of Fortnite and the Madden NFL game series over her son’s gaming addiction. He’s glued to the screen up to 10 hours a day (paywall link), leading to severe emotional distress, a shrinking friend circle and serious anger flare-ups. PSA: Take away the gaming console, put the kid in counseling and grow a set.
Kids play Roblox or Fortnite? Read this now!
Imagine if either of these online games were your business. In a single day, you had all these customers showing up at your site or store.
- Roblox has 66,100,000 daily active users.
- Fortnite has 237,000,000 daily active users.
That’s a ton of people sitting in front of screens, right? Cue the hackers and scammers. They noticed it, too.
If you have kids in the family, chances are they’re playing Roblox or Fortnite. What you (and them) don’t know is there’s a dark, scammy side that’s getting more extensive and sinister. This is important information for all parents and grandparents to know.
One family was hoodwinked after their 11-year-old daughter was tricked on Roblox. Her parents bought her two custom avatars for her birthday — valued at a whopping $280. A day later, another player tricked her and stole them. Poor kid.
Earlier this year, over 300 Roblox users were caught laundering money through the game. They used fake in-game purchases (for items that didn’t exist) to transfer real money. A class action lawsuit is currently underway for the victims. And you know how that goes … lawyers make the most bank.
Bad news: There’s a bigger, badder scam in town. Thousands of reputable websites — universities, professional organizations and even U.S. government agencies — have been hacked to push Fortnite and Roblox scams to kids.
The plot thickens
The premise is simple: Hackers scan a website for a vulnerability or weakness in the backend, then upload what are known as “poison PDFs.” These malicious documents appear in search results, promoting everything from free Roblox in-game currency (Robux) to free Fortnite skins.
You think you’re getting free Robux, but wait! There’s just one “last step.” A pop-up asks you to sign up for another service to unlock your free gift. Fill it out and the only gift you get is a computer virus — or identity theft.
These scams aren’t limited to websites. They can be found in YouTube videos and surveys, too. Roblox and Fortnite are just the latest victims. Similar scams have been reported offering free Amazon gift cards or cash prizes.
Guard the fort
Easy way to clear space on your PC or Mac
An exciting new program just came out to optimize your business and you want to get it. Or, perhaps you decided to finally see what all the fuss is about with Fortnite, so you try to download it to your computer. But when you hit download, you get an error message. Your computer storage is full.
People are selling phones with this banned game installed for up to $10K
In most cases, breaking the rules either leads to a big payoff or a stiff penalty. Epic Games learned that the hard way last week after the gaming giant tried to skirt Apple’s 30% commission policy on purchases made in the popular game Fortnite. Epic Games tried to bypass the Apple payment systems by offering players a 20% discount on in-game currency, V Bucks, but only if they paid Epic Games directly for the purchase. This violates the App Store policies and Epic Games got caught.
Are your kids hooked on Fortnite? It can become a dangerous addiction
Video gaming sure isn’t what it used to be. Long gone are the days of side-scrolling, low-resolution games with no online functions. Today, a game has become so popular that some kids have trouble walking away from it – which can lead to problems at home and school. Meet the wildly popular online game Fortnite. Medical professionals have a warning for parents because, for some young people, this game is apparently the equivalent of being addicted to drugs.
It started off with a gift: Kids are renting out their spare computer power to AI companies. Not a hard sell, when they’re offering Fortnite skins and Roblox gift cards. Here’s what your kid won’t realize: Their machine is being used to create AI porn, and they’re automatically opted in. Make sure none of the computers in your home are signed up to sites like Salad.
Google's secret text adventure game
Now, developers at Google have done it again. They’ve hidden a different kind of “Easter egg” within the Google search bar. This new game is a tribute to classic text adventure games where players complete tasks by typing in basic commands.