Epic Games is going after the maker of cheating software for Fortnite that lets players see through walls and auto-aim at opponents in a new lawsuit filed Tuesday. But Epic isn’t stopping there; it’s also suing a quintet of resellers of those cheating tools, seeking unspecified damages from the defendants.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of North Carolina, where Epic Games is headquartered, the maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine alleges that Ediz Atas (aka Sincey Cheats and Vanta Cheats) has developed, maintained, and sold cheat software for the battle royale game “since at least January 2023.”
That cheat software, Epic’s suit alleges, gives cheaters an unfair competitive advantage over non-cheating players; breaches the Fortnite end-user license agreement and circumvents Epic’s anti-cheat systems; and harms Epic by causing non-cheating players to stop playing Fortnite and purchase in-game passes, cosmetics, and other items.
What’s more, the suit alleges that after Epic Games submitted DMCA takedowns to YouTube to remove videos that featured the offending cheating software, “Sincey Cheats sent multiple emails to YouTube’s designated copyright agent impersonating an Epic employee and falsely claiming that Epic wanted to ‘formally reverse [its] claim of copyright infringement’” by spoofing Epic Games email addresses.
Epic said in its lawsuit that it has issued “tens of thousands of bans against Fortnite accounts” that used Sincey Cheats cheat software since February 2022, “including over 15,000 bans against accounts in the United States” alone.
The lawsuit is also targeting five unnamed defendants who sell Sincey Cheats and Vanta Cheats through various websites, Discord servers, and Telegram channels.
Epic did not mention specific monetary amounts it’s seeking in damages from Atas and the five other defendants in its lawsuit. But it’s looking for the usual relief: statutory and compensatory damages for lost profits, attorney’s fees, and other costs associated with the lawsuit.
