seth

"BSG sells accounts to cheaters" This statement is technically true, but as most things, the whole truth is a much different picture. There are a lot of people who cheat. Many of them buy legitimate accounts and play the game. These people are not rage cheaters. They are not targeting streamers. They are not running around headshoting every player they see. They mostly mind their own business, avoid players where they can, and rarely get reported or discovered. The individuals who fall into the 'rage cheater' category do not buy accounts from BSG, not directly. And in all likelihood, these cheaters probably cost BSG money. Rage Cheaters buy accounts for massive discounts off of reseller websites. Some more shady than others, but even websites like G2A are the equivalent of pawn shops selling stolen tools. Most of what they sell is probably legal, but stolen stuff still shows up pretty regularly. They know some of the tools probably are stolen, but hey, it's not their problem right? This is why I can't believe some Tarkov streamers run sponsorships for them. It also tends to be the same streamers that bitch about cheaters the most on socials too. They take money from outfits that help propagate the problem. Now, back to the accounts. Rage Cheaters buy accounts from these resellers. These accounts can be bought for as little as $5 for basic accounts. Unheard accounts can be bought as well, the pricing is all over the place depending on a few different factors though. The vast majority of these accounts are "burner" accounts, or accounts that will have a short life span. This short lifespawn is because the accounts are usually bought with stolen financial information, usually credit cards. They could also be stolen accounts, but those are usually worth more and go through a different life cycle. These cheat outfits can be massive organizations. They have multiple departments with different purposes and are compartmentalized to isolate the machine from threats. One of these departments takes stolen financial data, goes to BSG, buys accounts, then turns around and sells them. Then, what happens, in a week to a month, sometimes longer, the owner of the compromised credit card discovers the fraudulent charge, reports it, and a process begins. First the credit card company disputes the purchase with the vendor (BSG) and claws back the money. This is called a chargeback. Now, this is the important part. The credit card company doesn't just pull back the $50 for the game, they also hit BSG with a chargeback fee. A chargeback fee can be anywhere from $5 to $100. This fee is determined by industry, contract negotiation, sales volume, etc. Walmart? Probably on the $5 end (if not actually free). Only Fans or porn sites? They push toward the $100 end. It's based on risk to the credit card companies. Where does BSG fall? Hard to say exactly, but they aren't going to be on the low end of the spectrum. Based on some flimsy data and posts, figure somewhere around $25 per chargeback for most game companies. So I'll use $25 for sake of discussion. So when this chargeback happens, BSG gives back the original $50, plus another $25 for the chargeback fee. They then go shut off the corresponding account regardless if it's cheating or not. This account? It was sold by the reseller for $5-$10. The reseller keeps that cash because they acquired it illegally, and the person buying it looses the account. But most of these cheaters understand this, that is why they have no problem running around with 50hour accounts targeting streamers when they know they will be banned. So in the end, these guys are actually costing BSG money. How much? Who knows, it's not really that important for this discussion. What is important is the idea that BSG makes money off of banning cheaters is just absurd. So what about the 3000 hour or 6000 hour accounts that are blatantly cheating? Sometimes, yes, it's a Tarkov player that just decided to start cheating. But most of the time it's a stolen account. These cheat outfits have departments who's whole goal is to compromise accounts. It's done mostly through fishing, but some have really nefarious ways of doing this. The cheats themselves are very often malware. So people buying cheats are often installing software on their PC that collects every ounce of data it can. Financial information, passwords, loggins, the whole 9 yards. That dip shit 16 year old kid who used mom's credit card to buy cheats? Yeah... He's probably compromised his entire home network and his parents are wondering why they suddenly have dozens of bullshit charges on their cards. The more organized cheat outfits take control of these compromised account, then use it to generate RMT and attempt to not attract a lot of attention to that specific account because they can be quite valuable if they stay clean. They'll do carries, sell loot, etc. If the account is clean, they will resell this account, leveled all the way up, achievements done, and tons of stuff in the stash. And yes, there are people that will pay 400-500, sometimes even 800 for these accounts. It sounds insane that someone would spend that much on an account that wipes, but it does happen regularly. If the account isn't clean and is expected to get banned? It goes into the burner pile for a reseller. It gets bought, used to rage cheat, then poof, it's gone when it gets banned. I wrote this post for a partially selfish reason. I'm tired of explaining this honestly. I've been doing it for years on stream. Long before that bullshit wiggle video, long before anyone really even knew who I was as a content creator and I had 5 people in my chat. So now I have a place to point people to when they don't understand this little piece of this incredibly complex problem and industry.