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A Diablo 4 content creator recently had their "prized" Old School RuneScape account, which they've invested over $1,000 into, hacked for 4.8 billion gold. Utterly in shambles, they took to YouTube to vent their frustrations – one being that they practically asked to be hacked by ignoring some important account security tools – only to report back days later with the surprise news that the MMO's developer, Jagex, had reached out and restored their lost items.
DM: Diablo 4, otherwise known as Darth Microtransaction, began their sad story on September 28. "I got hacked and lost everything," they said in a video revealing they'd had their OSRS account breached. DM describes himself as an OSRS superfan; they've played the MMO for 20 years, own plenty of merch ranging from partyhats to skill capes, and consider it their favorite game despite Diablo being the face of their channels.
So they were understandably distraught to lose 4.8 billion gold worth of items, especially since some of those items had been purchased with audience donations or real money converted into subscription Bonds that can be sold on the OSRS in-game market for gold.
DM says their OSRS account actually got cleaned out years ago entirely of their own volition. Like countless others, they made a fortune at the casino-esque Dueling Arena – which was deemed so toxic that it's since been cut from the MMO – only to lose it all in a string of losses. This loss eventually started their comeback arc, and before this hack, DM says he had "every item in the game" barring a few commodities.
"I spent over $1,000, plus like $500 in Steam currency as well, on Bonds for gold to get it," DM says of their restored account. "People were chipping in. I saw people clean out their entire banks to give me like [50 million gold]. We stockpiled until we had like 4.8 billion gold, and we bought everything. I had a maxed-out account in the one game I love, finally, after years of wanting to get to that point."
Of course, we know what happened next. DM logged in to find that their account had been locked due to "suspicious activity." Their worst fears quickly came true: their riches had once again disappeared, only this time it was the work of a hacker.
"This video is going to be a lesson for you," DM says. "If you have something that you care about in the digital world, secure your account. While I had a bank pin and a password that was not shared with other things, I had email and all of that, I did not have the mobile third-party authenticator app. Somehow these people got through my password, they got through my bank pin, and they managed to take everything a week after we completed the account. I'm pretty sure it was a viewer that was able to get pieces of information to recover the account. I don't know, I'm not a security expert. My point being, because I'm not a security expert, I probably fucked up somewhere along the line and I got owned.
"The dude didn't even have the decency to leave the placeholders for my bank, so in case I wanted to rebuild my bank, it'd be really easy to reorganize everything," DM laments. "He fucked up all the organization that took me days to do in the bank, took out all the items that were there just to level my character to max, all my buyables to finish the [level 99 skills] on the account, the shit I actually care about and not just the expensive items."
Thoroughly fleeced, DM reacted as many hacked MMO players do: spiraling on social media. "Bro I can't be cleaned on OSRS for the second time," they said in a tweet posted before their somber video. "God damn it, steal my motorcycle, punch me in the face, literally anything but my RuneScape account the only game I care [about]." This went on for several days, with DM staying true to their word that they "will be moaning and bitching about this for a month." But yesterday, October 3, their prayers were answered.
"I have insanely good news," a new video from DM proclaimed. To the surprise of many – especially DM, who believed there was "zero chance" of a solution – Jagex reached out to restore their fortune.
"They came by the livestream and said 'hey, we see you have a lost item claim and all the info, let us know what happened.' So I did that, fully expecting literally nothing to come of it. If you've been by the livestream at all, you'll know people were asking 'what about customer support' and I've been saying there's a zero percent chance, absolutely no chance at all that I get any of my stuff back. I've played the game 20 years, long enough to know that this type of stuff that just happened for me doesn't happen. It purely does not happen.
"After I secured my security – because it was basically my fault, my security was bad," they reiterate. "Third-party authenticators and all that stuff. Don't be like me and forget to do your security. But after all that, they went through and restored the account."
Obviously, DM practically collapsed from relief. "Like it or not, I am an adult and my favorite, prized possession as an adult is video game items – sad, giggle all you want in the comments, but it's true," they said in their update video. Naturally, having their prized possession returned to them so soon after it was stolen was hugely cathartic.
The response from the broader OSRS community has been more mixed. Some players are happy for DM because getting hacked is everyone's nightmare, while others are frustrated to see Jagex make something of an exception for a streamer – and a Diablo 4 streamer at that, but still someone with a visible, sizable platform – who admits they didn't even fully protect their account. This isn't the first time Jagex has restored items for a hacked player, but suffice to say, there's a reason that even DM looked at the developer's customer support history and determined there was no hope. This has sparked non-trivial unrest in the MMO's subreddit.
This account security is raw from r/2007scape
Jagex staff on player equality from r/2007scape
Wading into the criticism, DM writes on Reddit: "To be fair I never asked. They came to me. Which, being a huge fan of the game for 20 years, I accepted any help they’d give. Tbh I know it’s streamer privilege. But I love this game and I’d someone tells me they can restore my account, I’m going to say yes please thank you."
One player told DM that they're simply mad at Jagex, and DM agreed that "I got my stuff back because I have a platform. Playing [the] game since 2001, I’m aware of how rare this is. I was completely expecting to never get anything and was surprised and extremely grateful when I did. People are welcome to their opinions on the matter. I don’t see anger towards me more than people want this to be able to happen for the average man, which is [a] perfectly fine way to feel."
This incident isn't unprecedented and doesn't strike me as a sea change for Jagex customer support, but I've reached out to the developer for comment on the situation anyway.
Just days ago, a group of OSRS players became the first five-man team to max their accounts in one of the genre's few co-op modes.
