No one would have ever imagined that the massive leak of Twitch data, reported a few weeks ago, would reveal a money laundering scandal that calls into question some security mechanisms on the platform, according to a story published by Dot Esports.
As some users may know, a month ago some profiles were leaked with detailed information from dozens of streamers, including data on their monthly income. After analyzing this information, some users in Turkey pointed out that some content creators with very few followers seem to receive an unusually high amount of bits, reward tokens on the platform.
In this regard, YouTuber Jake Lucky explained that the streamers who receive the suspicious bits supposedly return most of the value of the bits to the donors and, to make matters worse, they would be using bots and compromised accounts to hide the fraudulent activity.
Users who noticed this trend believe that the clear explanation is that behind these donations there is a complex money laundering operation. While the platform ensures that these bits are non-refundable, this seems to be a logical explanation.
It should be noted that most of the users who have received these unusual donations are Valorant players based in Turkey. A member of the Lixa Esports gaming team has already accepted his participation in the fraudulent scheme, although he assures that he is not aware of having committed any crime.
A report mentions that up to 300 content creators could be involved in this campaign, which would have allowed laundering up to $ 10 million USD. Twitch is expected to take action against similar campaigns in the future, including setting a donation limit and removing hundreds of accounts allegedly associated with such practices.
Because virtually everyone involved is Valorant streamers, Riot Games was asked for its position on the matter, to which the video game developer company mentioned that the situation would be analyzed to find the best way to address the incident.
Finally, a Twitch spokesperson mentioned that any type of similar fraud completely escapes the guidelines of the platform, so it is up to the authorities to determine the consequences that members of the fraudulent scheme will have to face.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.