PUBG Arrests Are Getting Expensive, Over $5.1M In Fines For Cheating

Just to show the cheaters out there that PUBG Corp. and its local partner in China, Tencent are serious about dealing with their kind, sweeping arrests are currently being made. In a recent case, fifteen suspects have been nabbed and their fines add up to a whopping $5.1 million. The companies are not done yet, either, as more suspects are currently in their crosshairs.

According to a post on the game’s Steam page, PUBG Corp. detailed this new development to provide some insight into what the company has been doing with regards to cheaters. Basically, it’s like a crackdown on illegal drugs, only with far fewer flushing of powder down the toilet. The post also contains a translated excerpt from the company’s local Chinese partners.

“15 major suspects including “OMG”, “FL”, “火狐”, “须弥” and “炎黄” were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions. Currently the suspects have been fined approximately 30mil RNB ($5.1mil USD). Other suspects related to this case are still being investigated,” the excerpt reads.

“Some hack programs that are being distributed through the internet includes a Huigezi Trojan horse*(Chinese backdoor) virus. It was proven that hack developers used this virus to control users’ PC, scan their data, and extract information illegally.”

As Destructoid notes, the intent behind this witch hunt is clearly to discourage other players from creating or even using cheat software in their games. More to the point, it would seem that many of these tools are actually carriers of malware, so downloading them is harmful to players in more ways than one.

It’s not yet clear how much impact these moves will have in reducing the number of cheaters on PUBG, which has been plagued with aimbots and the like for some time now. Cheating has gotten so bad, in fact, that it gave Fortnite Battle Royale the chance to overtake the former king of the Battle Royale genre.