EVE Online money buyers exposed

By Robert Purchese Published 10 March, 2011

Iskbank customers revealed by hacker.

Thousands of character names used to buy illegal EVE Online money and goods from major seller Isbank have been revealed online.

EVE News 24 (via the Eve Online Eurogamer forum thread) was handed a file documenting 4190 transactions on Iskbank, which added together total a staggering $290,248. On average, that's $69 a transaction, although numerous purchases were done by the same character - some spending hundreds of dollars.

Controversially, EVE News 24 decided to reveal all transactions and associated names to the public.

Owner of Iskbank, Vadim, accepted that in the short-term, EVE maker CCP could ban the associated characters and his company's reputation would be tarnished.

"In the long-term?" he added. "Nothing is going to change; neither in the industry, nor with us ISK farmers."

Bizarrely, Iskbank then responded on its website claiming the leaked character names were "fictitious and nothing to do with our customers' data". Furthermore, Iskbank accused EVE News 24 of "slander and intentional harm to EVE users". (We can't find this statement on Iskbank.com, but Eve News 24 has reproduced it.)

EVE Online developer CCP responded officially through a GM (gamemaster) on the game's forum.

"At this time we cannot comment on the information in focus but we would like to use this opportunity to remind everyone that buying ISK for real money is a violation of our EULA and anyone doing so risks getting the ISK removed and punitive action against their accounts, including possible permanent bans," wrote GM Gremmi.

That's EVE Online, then - an MMO with more drama than EastEnders.

EVE Online: Incursion.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (13) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mingster #1 1 year ago

    But i thought you could buy Plex legally for cash then put the plex on the market legitamately for ISK.
    Therefore you can swap money for ISK ingame using plex. Why use a dodgy banker.

  • HisDudness #2 1 year ago

    Wikileaked?

  • Toothball #3 1 year ago

    This seems to happen in pretty much every MMO, and no number of bannings seems to make a dent. Probably the only way to avoid it is for the MMO producer to offer a similar or better service than the RMT merchants. At least that way the money goes to the right people.

  • Shikasama #4 1 year ago

    I don't see them banning people who are so invested in the game they are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on its currency.

  • butler` #5 1 year ago

    i thought, if anyone would, these guys would embrace it and make it part of the game

    they've got a small, obsessed playerbase willing to throw around real money...

  • MikeP #6 1 year ago

    People use a dodgy banker because they get a favourable exchange rate. They get more ISK per $ via these RMTs than by the official Eve Game Time Code (PLEX) to ISK process.

    CCP appear to take an ambivalent attitude to the people who convert ISK into real money - a lot of this is done via bot programs that spend 23 hours a day mining materials. These bots are pretty easy to spot, but the banhammer isn't wielded all that often,as far as anyone can make out.

  • TheeUmbrellaMan #7 1 year ago

    Problem with a legitimate system is that it's essentially just printing huge quantities of in-game currency which, like in real-life, causes hyperinflation.

  • Puppaz #8 1 year ago

    Gremmi!
    *Has HoTU flashback*

  • MikeP #9 1 year ago

    @TheeUmbrellaMan for Eve that's not the case. Players can also use ISK generated in game to buy PLEX (a 30-day license to play), which means that they are taking ISK out of the system and converting it into play-time.

    Also, plenty of ISK is taken out of the system when people who RMT get their super-extra shiny ships exploded :)

  • dvrabel #10 1 year ago

    A PLEX moves ISK from the purchaser of the PLEX to the seller (who paid in real money). It doesn't act as an ISK source or sink.

  • INSOMANiAC #11 1 year ago

    What the fuck are you people talking about?

  • spiritsnake #12 1 year ago

    +1 @INSOMANiAC
    exactly, i felt like i had entered another dimension by mistake, what the fuck??!!
    Edited by spiritsnake at 10/03/11 @ 19:18

  • levitate #13 1 year ago

    With the open sandbox, EVE is also a cesspool of cheaters and scammers. Not long ago there was a huge controversy about something that happened in nullsec (where else..?), and then we have the cheating GM of course. And now this.