Superstar Twitch streamer and Fortnite star “Ninja” got a nasty surprise from Drake — or rather, someone pretending to be him. The Canadian rapper is also a big Fortnite fan, and it seems he had his Fortnite account hacked. The hacker then used it to type racial slurs at Ninja during a stream.
Drake’s Fortnite account hacked
During a charity event on Nov. 23, when the streamer known as Ninja was playing Fortnite, he noticed someone with the account “Duddus647” join the game. “Duddus647” is Drake’s Epic Games account number (his PS4 handle is “TheBoyDuddus”). Whoever was playing with the name “Duddus647” started typing racist comments into the game, so then Ninja left the game.
Drake’s account was silent initially when the hacker joined, so Ninja resumed his normal play, assuming the star was probably setting up his microphone and audio. Then Drake’s account started saying the “n”word repeatedly.
Ninja, who realized that it couldn’t be Drake typing such things, said he would talk to Drake and report the incident to the Epic Games. Although it has not been confirmed that Drake had his Fortnite account hacked, Ninja assumed it to be the case.
“I’ll be sending [Drake] a message and letting him know, that his account was hacked. I’m going to report that guy to Epic, and hopefully they can do something pretty serious about that,” ‘Ninja’ said, according to Dexerto.
Drake’s account was apparently hacked over Thanksgiving weekend. Although it is not clear who hacked the account or how they did it, Ninja believes the hacker is somewhere in Europe and is using a PC to carry out their intentions.
Considering the attention that Drake’s Fortnite account hack is getting, there is a good chance his account will be restored quickly. However, it will be interesting to see if Epic actually finds out who did it.
The charity event was organized to raise funds for the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund. Although Ninja left the game after the racial comments, he still managed to raise $52,000 for the fund.
Incredible guys thank you so much to everyone who donated and supported! 52k in 9 hours AMAZING! pic.twitter.com/qhqF2ZMxHl
— Ninja (@Ninja) November 24, 2018
Wouldn’t have been the first time Drake and Ninja played together
Drake and Ninja have played and live-streamed Fortnite before. When they played together in March, they broke the live-stream record. At the time, the stream was watched by over 600,000 viewers concurrently. They played together again in April.
Ninja, whose real name is Tyler Blevins, surpassed the previous record set with Drake during an exhibition event in Las Vegas. About 667,000 viewers watched the stream concurrently.
Blevins is no stranger to slurs. He said them himself previously but later apologized. In April, he made headlines after dropping a racial slur into a song where it wasn’t actually used.
Hacking incidents on the rise
Drake’s Fortnite account hack is not the first incident in which hackers have targeted this hugely popular battle royale game. In June, security researchers warned that hackers are using fake Android apps to trick Fortnite users. Last month, a report noted that scams targeting the game are on the rise. Players were also targeted by malware designed to steal their bitcoin account details.
In October, Epic Games even dragged two popular YouTubers to court alleging that they employed aimbots to hack the game and then sold their cheats for about $300. One of the YouTubers in question has 1.7 million subscribers.
Epic sued Brandon Lucas, operator of the “Golden Modz” YouTube channel, and Colton Conter, host of Exentric. The complaint was filed in Oct. 10 in federal court in North Carolina. Lucas’ channel has more than 1.73 million subscribers, while Conter’s has 7,101.
The lawsuit alleges both YouTubers promoted hacks which gave players “magical powers.” Epic also claimed the two joked about the unfair competitive advantages they enjoyed in the game. The developer says it initially issued copyright complaints against the YouTubers to order them to remove the videos from their channel.
Further, the lawsuit claims both of them are cheaters because they violated Fortnite’s terms of use and copyrights. They also “ruin the game-playing experience of players who do not cheat […] violate universally understood notions of fair play, and diminish the integrity of the game,” the lawsuit says.
In the lawsuit, Epic asked the judge to order a shutdown of both YouTubers’ activities and order all the infringing videos and hacks to be destroyed. Although Epic is also demanding monetary damages, the main aim of the lawsuit is to set a precedent for others thinking of using the same illegal tactics.
