Epic Games has taken legal action against Ediz Atas, also known as Sincey Cheats and Vanta Cheats, for creating and distributing cheat software for Fortnite. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the lawsuit claims that Atas has been profiting from the development and sale of these cheats since at least January 2023. Epic argues that these cheats give players an unfair advantage, violating Fortnite’s End User License Agreement (EULA) by bypassing the game’s anti-cheat protections.
The company further asserts that cheating on such a scale could drive away legitimate players, leading to potential losses in sales of season passes and in-game cosmetics. As a result, Epic Games has had to ban tens of thousands of accounts using Sincey Cheats software, with over 15,000 bans occurring in the United States alone.
In a troubling twist, Epic also alleges that, after sending DMCA takedown notices to YouTube to remove videos promoting the cheats, Atas and his associates attempted to impersonate Epic Games employees by sending fraudulent emails to YouTube’s copyright team. These emails falsely claimed that Epic wanted to retract its copyright infringement claims, further complicating the legal situation.
The lawsuit also targets five individuals who are accused of reselling Sincey Cheats’ software across multiple platforms. As expected, Epic Games is seeking both compensatory and statutory damages, along with coverage of legal and other associated costs.
This legal battle is not an isolated case, as other game developers, like Bungie, have taken similar action against cheat makers in the past. Bungie even secured multi-million dollar compensations in lawsuits against companies like LaviCheats and AimJunkies. However, whether these actions will ultimately deter cheat developers remains to be seen.