Some GTA Online fans on PC and last-gen consoles are being hit with a new exploit that hackers are using to steal millions of in-game dollars from unsuspecting players. While hacking GTA Online is nothing new, this new “trick” has some longtime fans vowing to stay offline until it’s fixed.
Forum posts, Tweets, and videos are reporting that, over the last few days, hackers have gained the ability to steal vast sums of money from players, along with the ability to give people illegitimate RP. Previously, GTA hackers could only drop money for players or spawn strange objects or rare vehicles—but now, through the use of third party software known as “mod menus,” the cheating has become even more devious.
You can see this exploit in the video below, courtesy of Jack k:
Tustin, a developer who has worked on a PS3 GTA V mod menu, told Kotaku that part of what makes this exploit scary is that it can easily be added to mod menus with little effort, meaning that the potential for spreading across platforms is big. While the exploit doesn’t seem widespread, those affected are reporting millions in losses of in-game money. Combined with the ability to level up players instantly, the worry is that, by having such an sudden jump in rank, innocent players targeted by hackers could be flagged by Rockstar and then banned.
Rockstar says it is aware of the exploit and has set up a support page that says it is “actively working on a fix for this issue.” While no timeframe is listed, in the past, Rockstar has fixed issues with GTA Online relatively quickly. Hopefully this exploit won’t be around for long. Until then it might be wise to stay off GTA Online public sessions on PC and last-gen consoles unless you feel like donating all your hard earned cash to some random hacker.
Zach Zwiezen is a a writer living in Kansas City, Missouri. He has written for Gamecritics, Killscreen and Entertainment Fuse.