How Roblox 'Beamers' Get Rich Stealing from Children (vice.com) 47
Underneath the gaming platform worth $68 billion and used by over half of all children in America is a ballooning and highly profitable ecosystem of hackers and traders. From a report: Motherboard spoke to 11 people connected to Roblox beaming (Roblox slang for getting hacked and your items stolen), including victims, the people who administer the marketplaces where people then sell Roblox items, and hackers themselves. There's a ballooning and highly profitable ecosystem where hackers stand to steal tens of thousands of dollars worth of items in minutes, with many victims including children. The sketchy, and sometimes illicit, economy sits in the shadow of Roblox's legitimate business, which is worth $68 billion and which half of all children in the U.S. play on in some form. One beamer called Max told Motherboard how he targets many of these victims. "I go to servers with rich idiots, then message every single one of them," he said.
Roblox isn't a single game but a free application players download onto their PC, phone, or Xbox games console. From there, they can access tens of millions of different games, or as Roblox calls them, "experiences," made by members of the wider Roblox community and player base. At the time of this writing, popular Roblox games include Murder Mystery 2, where players try to identify the killer; Pet Simulator X, for players who want to take care of and trade pets; and Hide and Seek Extreme.
Roblox isn't a single game but a free application players download onto their PC, phone, or Xbox games console. From there, they can access tens of millions of different games, or as Roblox calls them, "experiences," made by members of the wider Roblox community and player base. At the time of this writing, popular Roblox games include Murder Mystery 2, where players try to identify the killer; Pet Simulator X, for players who want to take care of and trade pets; and Hide and Seek Extreme.
Alternate title (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Alternate title (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, not healthy, merely accurate.
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So... you support the thieves here?
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It is stealing, but it also teaching. It is teaching the children several things:
- the importance of online security
- a scepticism against unknown strangers
- how digital "property" is fragile and can very easily be gone in a flash
- don't spend too much money on frivolities
and all that for a tuition and teaching price that is laughably low compared to all other education. Even more apt, the price of this lesson scales perfectly with how badly this lesson was needed.
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Do you always blame the victim or do you reserve that for when the victim is powerless?
This isn't Robin Hood we're talking about. These people are literally stealing from children.
You have twisted morals and probably shouldn't be allowed near children. These people are trash, and need to be arrested.
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What you say is morally correct, and I would NEVER say that about reasonably dangerous physical attacks or reasonably large financial losses. Your problem is conflating the two, and treating minuscule financial losses as equal to physical harm or loss of large financial assets.
Losing a small amount of money to gain valuable insights is a very good strategy for learning. It is a children's game and learning something is the primary goal of children. And what money they'll lose here are small amounts that can
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or reasonably large financial losses.
The amount shouldn't matter here, but as a point of fact, we could be talking about tens of thousands of dollars here. In aggregate, millions. Though with your twisted morals, you probably thing that makes the thief a here. Ugh...
Let's start with the basics:
Taking other people's things without their permission is called stealing.
Stealing is wrong.
Stealing from vulnerable people is even worse. Vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to, children and the elderly.
You are not justified in steal
I actually mentioned this in a comment a while ago (Score:5, Interesting)
In the comment Roblox is shit [slashdot.org] I mentioned how a lot of people I knew from a mobile gaming company that had books on gambling triggers went to Roblox. While I mention that one of my kids used autoclickers, what I failed to mention is he's spent over $200 of his hard earned dollars on Roblox items.
Despite trying to teach him he's better off putting his money into something real vs virtual, he's fallen victim to it. We're not rich by any means, and this money was earned via doing chores. It went straight to 7-11 Robux cards.
There needs to be some kind of bigger investigation into this by the FTC. As an adult I can recognize a gambling trigger, kids are just such easy prey I don't think it's something we should allow. Any game with lootboxes, p2w, gameplay enhancements via hats should be restricted to 18 and above especially if there's any kind of online interaction with other people.. I'll put on my asbestos coat now, because I fear some people aren't going to agree with me, and will subsequently douse me in a fiery rage.
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Not having kids, I had never even heard of them until I saw...
They are smaller versions of the people who created them.
Glad I could help.
Re:I actually mentioned this in a comment a while (Score:5, Interesting)
I also wouldn't be too hard on kids for spending money on something virtual instead of real physical items. It really isn't much different than spending money on real life collectables and decorations, spending extra money on fancy clothing instead of plain cheap clothing, spending extra money on a luxury vehicle instead of a cheap vehicle that works perfectly fine, expensive food, etc. When it's a game someone plays for thousands of hours they're likely getting a lot more enjoyment out of $100 spent on things in the game than some physical item for entertainment. However, teaching responsible spending and saving money for the future is definitely important.
Re:I actually mentioned this in a comment a while (Score:5, Insightful)
>You're the parent. The buck stops with you. I personally don't think children should spend money "gambling" on loot boxes, but If you can't stop your own child from doing it what makes you think the government will be able to?
It often isn't quite that simple. Your children require agency as well. Something that giving them an allowance is supposed to teach, along with monetary and budgeting skills.
IN addition, it reads "get off my lawn". Extra extra read all about it - some adults don't agree with what the younger generations spend their money one! News at 11.
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>It often isn't quite that simple. Your children require agency as well. Something that giving them an allowance is supposed to teach
You seem to get it. I suppose now my son is doing better, he hasn't asked for a ride to the store for Robux in some time.
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Allowing them agency doesn't require you to let them do something you feel should be illegal for kids (or actually are illegal). Like all things, allowing your kids agency is a continuum.
If you thinks the government should investigate gambling mechanisms on roblox, the self-consistent worldview is to not allow your own children to gamble on roblox.
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The government is not some infallible entity that can magically solve problems like so many people seem to believe.
While this is true, you seem to be using this statement to insinuate that the government is incapable of or would have great difficulty regulating this. However, there is precedent going back centuries [wikipedia.org] of governments successfully regulating gambling in some form or another. Furthermore, these days, gaming regulations [wikipedia.org] are widespread, and enforcement is very effectively offloaded onto the gaming institutions themselves, freeing the government of essentially any involvement whatsoever, except for having to
Re:I actually mentioned this in a comment a while (Score:4, Insightful)
The government is not some infallible entity that can magically solve problems like so many people seem to believe.
Rampant theft in a marketplace is certainly within the purview of government action and/or regulation.
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One: you're not a parent, are you? Parents don't magically know what their kids are up to, nor should they, since suffocating kids is one of the most detrimental things a parent can do.
Two: the idea of having laws against certain things like in this case, a theft, means that after
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You're the parent. The buck stops with you. I personally don't think children should spend money "gambling" on loot boxes, but If you can't stop your own child from doing it what makes you think the government will be able to?
By that logic, there should be no laws banning the sales of liquor, cigarettes, or porn to children. The parents should stop their children from buying those things, right?
The fact is, the world isn't all black and white. There are things which government can much more effectively do than millions of parents each trying individually. Gambling, including loot boxes, is one thing that government should ban companies from targeting children, just like liquor, cigarettes and porn.
re: loot boxes and gambling (Score:2)
No, you're correct.... but the things society has pretty well defined as criminal acts don't really include video game makers selling virtual items.
Calling purchasing "loot boxes" a form of gambling is questionable, at best. Seems more like an attempt to force a square peg to fit in a round hole because you find it distasteful that your kids are spending their hard earned money on it?
If you want a closer analogy? I think it's much like it was in generations past when kids bought packs of trading cards. Exc
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I'd like to learn more about these gambling triggers, do you have the titles of those books?
I want to teach my kids what to look out for and how to better understand what is happening.
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Indeed. Getting kids to gamble is illegal for a reason. It needs to get extended to things like this. Most kids are not (yet) equipped to understand what is going on. ]
Well, at least your kid gambled only with money he had and could afford to lose, but still.
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Kids account (Score:5, Funny)
This Just In (Score:2)
Phishers and hackers are sociopaths, and Roblox has shit security. News at 11.
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Not just shit security, there is no recourse with Roblox whatsoever. If something leaves your account, by whatever method and for whatever reason, then its done and there is no undoing it. Roblox just blames the app maker and does nothing. The app maker is probably in on the scam, so nothing they will do either.
Its hard to wrap my head around all these people that want to steal from children. I hope there is a nasty eternal hell for them.
How (Score:2)
Can someone explain how Roblox hasn't been sued into oblivion by Lego? On the face of it, it appears to be a complete rip off, down to the Minifigs.
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> appears to be a complete rip off [of Lego]
Block-heads are a prior art. [reddit.com]
Although if enough subtle similarities to Lego's style show up, Lego could have a solid case.
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The patent on Lego is expired.
Items stolen by phishers (Score:1)
Motherboard found beamers are using a wide selection of creative and varied ways to break in and steal items from unsuspecting victims. Beamers are constantly registering new phishing domains to use against targets. One beamer who goes by the name Stoevsky recently obtained the domain röblox.com for their own phishing attempts.
Phishers appear to have used domains such as www—roblox.com, site-roblox.com, and www-roblzx.com, according to chat messages in Discord channels Motherboard accessed.
Beamers use gens, or generators, to quickly and automatically create phishing pages for specific targets, according to the messages. In Motherboard’s own test of using a generator to make a Roblox phishing page, some of these pages look like Roblox user profiles, which beamers then send to targets in the hopes of harvesting their password.
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"Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video" (Score:5, Informative)
This video is from the YouTube channel called "People Make Games" and this is their story as they dug deep and delve into the rabbit hole that is Roblox. It's pretty sad. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Roblox exploits children known for ages (Score:5, Interesting)
It has been known for a while that Roblox exploits [youtube.com] children / young developers. When Roblox went after that content creator they made a follow up video. [youtube.com]
I think child labor is the bigger issue (Score:3)
A lot of the programmers and designers working on games built in Roblox (which are sold for money) are unpaid or underpaid kids being taken advantage of by adults. Sorta like how when I was a kid and got suckered into long hours working at a fast food joint.
And the excuse is always the same: They're learning "valuable skills". That's nice, now pay me a fair wage. The best kind of employee is the one that doesn't know what their work is worth. And the best place to find those is with kids.
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Yep. I would not the government stepping in on this one. As a parent, you can keep your kid out of some things, but no joke if you don't allow them a phone at a certain age they will be social outcasts in the US of A. You can at least use some lockdowns via the Family thing on iphones, but again... if 99% of your kids friends play that one game... are you never going to let you kid touch it? I allow my kid in about half the games his friends do, and I wish I could keep him out of 98% of them without killin
I miss the good old days (Score:1)
When, as a kid, getting scammed in a video game just meant I lost some Rune armor as some rando said he could trim it...
The part that baffles me is how a some company can have this level of real consequences not be a huge red flag to investors. Who all remember the rollbacks Apple and friends had to do when kids got access to their parents credit cards through iTunes accounts and micro transactions were just taking off. If I were an investor the impending complaint storm/bad press/law suit would have been
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Most games will sort that out for you if you contact customer service, Roblox probably does too.
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not really, its exactly the same thing... I was going for a slightly sarcastic reference to the old-ish (2006) days of Runescape but even then Jagex implemented an entire zone to teach their players (mostly kids) the basics of account security and internet safety. If your target audience is going to be minors then you need to have guard rails. If you don't then you clearly did not learn from the past failures of other companies. Even simple things by modern security standards like 2FA being mandatory wou
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