Epic Games remove Fortnite skins & items bought using third party V-Bucks

Scott Robertson

Players who’ve purchased or acquired V-Bucks from shady third-party sites are logging into Fortnite to find their in-game currency, and items bought with them, removed from their profiles. This is all part of Epic’s new crackdown on other sites.

If you’ve watched any Fortnite content on sites like YouTube, you’ve likely seen a banner advertisement or a pre-roll ad selling some V-Bucks deal through a third party service.

Like sites that sell game keys or in-game skins and items, these sites always appear questionable when their legitimacy is brought up, with certain sites appearing more-or-less legitimate than others.

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This is not to imply that all third-party retailers are selling illegitimately acquired V-Bucks, but certainly some are, and Epic Games are now taking action, by removing the illegitimate currency and any in-game items that were purchased with them.

The “Switch Method” appears to represent the act of using a credit card that instantly charges back the purchase right after it was made, but somehow doesn’t remove the V-Bucks that were purchased. This apparently worked only on the Nintendo Switch, and is also commonly referred to as credit card fraud.

Epic has finally taken notice, and removed the currency that was purchased illegally no matter what account they eventually made their way to. So even if players bought from “legitimate” third party sellers, they still lose out on the V-Bucks because the sellers used the Switch method. 

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They also refunded items that were purchased, and players who received gifts from someone who had their V-Bucks recalled also lose out on the gifts, with seemingly no way of reclaiming them, even with legitimate currency.

Epic are reportedly cracking down on third-party sellers that obtain their goods by stealing accounts, and using the credit cards on those accounts to purchase V-bucks and then sell them to a buyer. Epic is also reclaiming the V-bucks and purchases obtained from this method too, and anyone who received gifts from someone who used this lose their gifts as well.

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Several fans are hoping Epic makes an exception for people who just received gifts from someone who used an illegitimate method, based on the notion that they didn’t have any part of the illegal process, but still lose out on a gift.

But Epic appears to be going in hard with no exceptions, and setting a standard that any illegal V-bucks and purchases made with them are going to get scrubbed.

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About The Author

Scott is a former esports writer for Dexerto, who covered a variety of esports games including, CS:GO, Valorant and League of Legends.