The official Fortnite Twitter has been hacked by crypto pumpers, fans should ignore any strange posts from the official account for a few hours.

The Fortnite Twitter account is normally home to announcements about the latest Fortnite esports, and in these waning days of a season a seemingly never-ending countdown. Today, it got a bit weirder though. Crypto scammers have pulled off a Fortnite Twitter hack, if only for the tiniest stretch of time before Epic cracked back down.

In an all-too-common occurrence for major Twitter accounts, somebody has gotten access to Epic’s official FNCompetitive Fortnite Twitter. They’ve used it to promote a cryptocurrency scam of some sort, and not a particularly sophisticated one.

Fortnite Twitter Hacked by Crypto Bros

The Fortnite Twitter account has been hacked by crypto bros tonight! Rather than detailing a new event, something with the returned Trios, or yet more changes to the newly introduced Fortnite ranked mode, the twitter was instead engaging in trying to sell some crypto. Well, claiming to be selling some crypto.

While the Fortnite Twitter was hacked to advertise some crypto, it seemingly wasn’t trying to pump an actual coin. Instead, the hackers posted their own ETH address. They promised the release of some official coin and gave an address to send payment to. Even specifying a minimum of 0.05 ETH (currently worth about $93.35). The scam seemingly worked by implying a new coin would be sent in return.

Usually, these Twitter scams at least go through the trouble of actually minting a fake coin. After all, there’s basically nothing stopping people from making fake Fortnite coins given the lack of regulation in crypto. It’s not something Epic Games is involved with, but for someone willing to hack the Fortnite Twitter it doesn’t seem like too big a jump. However, this particular scammer apparently wanted to cut out the middleman. Just appealing for the crypto to be sent wholesale! Where it presumably could be cashed out.

Hopefully, no players fell for the Fortnite Twitter hack and actually handed over crypto. It stands to reason that this would have little success though. Most familiar enough with crypto to have ETH just standing by would probably be familiar enough to know not to send random addresses ETH in the hope you get sent something in return.

Fortnite and the Crypto Pumpers

The Fortnite Twitter hack is unfortunate, and a reminder of why more security for your accounts is always a good thing. With how much Epic is pushing Fortnite 2FA, we have to assume the Fortnite Twitter hack went a bit further! These kinds of problems are frequent occurrences and Epic is far from the first major name to end up sending out some scammer’s messages. Major YouTube channels, Twitter, and more have all been taken over by similar scammers. FNCompetitive had the tweet down and normality resumed nearly instantly, which is much better than most manage as a response time.

For what it’s worth, Epic has never talked about adding to Fortnite. In a family-friendly game, it seems extremely unlikely that they would ever complicate things with the addition of such a controversial area. While Fortnite does claim to be a Metaverse, this is more the shared online space, crossovers, Fortnite live events, etc. Instead of the other meaning that’s been co-opted by crypto and NFT scammers.

That particular distinction has caused some problems in the past, with crypto pumpers attempting to use Fortnite to bolster their own products. The advent of UnrealFN saw a few crypto-related grifters attempting to shove their own assets into Fortnite through the editor, in an attempt to “technically” have it in the game. Crypto pumpers claiming ”X NFT is in Fortnite!” have even been shut down pretty bluntly by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney in the past.

No

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 28, 2023

Epic isn’t currently adding crypto to Fortnite and it probably won’t ever add it. While open to hosting games on the marketplace, they frequently restated their resistance to having them in this game. The overwhelming success of Fortnite as a metaverse continues to be a magnet for shady actors in the space though, and fans should be vigilant of any off-sounding communication from official sources like this.