Los Santos is supposed to be a criminals’ paradise, a place where the right crew, the right weapons and the right vehicles let you unlock as much money as you can earn. But a plague of hacking is clogging GTA Online‘s in-game economy with billions — maybe even trillions — of dirty dollars.
Most of GTA Online’s initial launch woes have been resolved and a big make-good has rolled out but players say that a networking exploit that opens the door to earning infinite amounts of cash is ruining the multiplayer portion of Rockstar’s hit game.
The complaints are everywhere. On Facebook, Reddit, Rockstar’s support forums and other sites, users are sharing stories of how random players are suddenly bestowing them with six- and seven-figure sums or placing bounties on their heads or with similarly inflated amounts.
The problem? Rockstar’s said that holding obscene amounts of money could be a flag in their regular sweeps to ban cheating players. This has left victimized players afraid, since giving away the too-much-to-spend windfall is a scary proposition that raise suspicions on those who want to avoid a ban or play clean. Another side-effect scenario has had targets with a bounty in millions of dollars constantly on the run or sitting in their apartments waiting for the bounty to time out, though this seems to be less prevalent.
Details of the networking hack enabling the vast piles of GTA Online cash have been spreading over YouTube as well as various online forums and sub-Reddits. And the flow of ill-gotten money hasn’t been stopped by the latest 1.08 patch for GTA Online. One way to dodge the unwanted gifting is to do a hard reset of your console so the extra money doesn’t save. From one Twitter user:
Fifth hard reset of my ps3, don’t want the billions hackers keep handing out and don’t want to get banned
Without the motivation to earn money as a reward for what they’ve accomplished in the online version of Los Santos, affected players say that they’ve lost their taste for the game. Others are calling for Rockstar to close the exploit and implement a global reset that knocks all players back to a base level of XP and cash.
There’s some irony here, since the GTA series has been all about the exploits of characters who break society’s rules. Until there’s a fix for the infinite money problem, though, the rules-breakers of GTA will be making their victims very unhappy with the burden of unasked-for riches. Kotaku has reached out Rockstar for comment and will update this story if they respond.
Comments
33 responses to “Players Say Rampant Money Hacking Is Ruining GTA Online”
Cause only good honest people play GTA.
Not all of us cheat or want to cheat.
I got a world record and then it was lost in an update so this game can go snarf itself tyvm.
also please contact me if anyone reads this about mysterious upload usage on gta online, $500 thanks to telstra, I made another post but it got deleted on another forum so who knows.
I hope they dont do a reset…….do you know how hard it was to get the pistol whipped tattoo?? 500 pistol kills is not easy when everyone else has an AK47!! also Im only about 50 kills from getting my 1000 kill tattoo…….not to mention all the money ive spend on the rest of the body art!! I could have brought a house.
Im still a little miffed my first charater got acidently deleted. He had a world record and the shoulder tattoo with the blonde lady…….Im never getting that one again.
If they manage to fix the hacking of money, they should simply do 3 things:
1. Wipe away microtransactions. They’re such a ripoff and a blight on Rockstars name for $20 bucks for 1 million dollars.
2. Wipe everyones bank account to $0.
3. Reimburse ANYONE who has spent money on microtransactions the exact amount they have into their characters accounts, and give everyone else $500,000 again. From there, just let it go.
Initially I didn’t think there was an issue with this but I’m sitting on 500+ mil at the moment and a mate has 29 billion we both didnt ask for, it’s ruined the game for us both. We have everything now, which is fine but it’s left us both wondering ‘What now?’
Wow. And I thought I was rich with 282 million…
The easiest way is to reset all players bank account to $0 (like what happens when a player enters the cheater pool)…
Absolutely but you would have to take into account the people who have spent real money on the game. For them, reimburse them the money that they have spent on the game for sure in terms of microtransactions, then just reset it to zero. You’re right, why reward shit behaviour. 0 is fine. Now they’ve increased payouts it doesn’t take long to breach the 100k mark initially anyhow. 1 million only takes 1 – 2 days of grinding for a few hours each day as well.
I gotta admit. This has happened to me. Three times. First was on Monday evening. I was playing and saved a guy with a $10,000 bounty on his head. Later on, the same player randomly gave me $50,000,000. I was shocked and thought it was a crazy way of saying thank you. Then moments later he gave me another $50,000,000 and then left the online session. I deposited the cash into bank account as the usual message popped up saying you are holding more than $5,000.
Two days later, I had two guys being a bunch of dicks driving around killing everyone on the map. I was their next target. They would chase me down like a dog and kill me. I managed to get away for a few minutes of peace and noticed a bounty had appeared on one of their heads (red dot on the map). So while escaping, I dropped a grenade and their car exploded. I won the bounty of $1.1 billion dollars. I heard them over voice chat laughing and I deposited the cash and quickly left the game.
I’ve since jumped online only twice since then, and engaged in conversation with other players who have told me not to mention it anymore, and not to admit to receiving the payments. So yes it’s made me enjoy GTA Online less, mostly for fear of what may happen to my account if Rockstar decides to implement some sort of ban.
I purchased in game cash via PS Network, and the millions, no, billions I’ve received has really put me off. Big time.
This happened to me today. And i did exactly the same things that what you did. I just asked a guy why there is no snow and then he gave me 250million then i just buy expensive boats, planes and cars just like a idiot. So i dont know what will happen next but i dont want to be banned its not my fault anyway. Also i bought cashcards from PSN. I afraid that I will be banned
Sorry for my english hope you understand what I written
Keep an eye out for the Transformers crew…played a game with Starscream a month back and wouldn’t shut up about the billions of dollars they have
If only gangsters were running around handing over cash in real life lol
The real irony is that money is not really that beneficial in GTA online, you only need a few million to buy an apartment and a tank and all the toys, most things are level locked anyway. What would it matter if everyone logged on tomorrow and had a trillion dollars in their account? The game wouldn’t break one bit.
Yeah, I have an apartment, a dirt bike, a blue ute with my gang emblem on it, a cowboy hat and a body full of tattoos…..I don’t really need money any more………I still have the half mil rockstar gave me cause I had already brought all my stuff.
Okay, I must be the only one who enjoys my ridiculous wealth. I don’t care if I didn’t earn it, I don’t exactly have the time the developers want for me to earn enough to buy the best cars and houses, and people with too much money have been ruining this game from the very beginning, BEFORE any of these charity cheaters were around, because they played big-reward missions over and over. So I’m not complaining about this. I still play missions to level up and unlock purchases, except now I have the ability to harass anyone who harasses me, instead of pitifully being pushed over without any way of fighting back.
I’m right there with you bro. I for one think this whole in game economy is complete bullshit. Fuck all these faggots with their pussies bleeding about “I wanna work for my money.” I wanna go in the online world and dick around with my friends in the fast cars. Why the fuck would I want to log in and have money problems in a game. I was looking for a fun game not a second job. The fact that we spent money to buy this game and then in order for people who can’t sit around 23 hours a day getting 1000 dollars at a time have to pay more money to access content that is already there is complete bullshit. If rock star takes my billion dollars, I will never play this game again. I can’t handle a second job that doesn’t pay real money but takes it.
“Players Say Rampant Money Hacking Is Ruining GTA Online”
Bollocks.
“Players Say Rockstar’s ridiculously over-priced gameplay items and very limited cash rewards for missions etc force players to get creative with money making”
Yes.
The only thing that has been ruined GTA Online, is Rockstar’s micro-transaction con scheme. And no player should be complaining about that.
If they put everyone back at $0 I will never play this again. I found it ridiculously hard to make money and was only able to buy things with the online stimulus package, about half of which I still have. If they take that away from me, they’re absolutely losing a player. Resetting everyone might seem like a good idea to some of you people, but it’s punishing the masses for the wrongdoings of a minority.
They would most likely lose the majority of their legit players if they did this, as they couldn’t be bothered grinding away again. Ironically the cheaters would be all that was left, and they’d just find a new way to cheat.
They should just fix the problem then do a wipe so everyone is even again.
But then the people who’ve spent real world $$$ on in-game millions get screwed. There’s a better way to counter this.
Pft, anyone who’s spent real world TIME gets screwed.
That’s the worst of all, since it can’t be re-reimbursed. Maybe patching in an option for players to ‘donate’ their unwanted cash to one of the many fictional in-game Los Santos’ charities. A simple black hole for excess, unwanted funds. Like, the John Marston wildlife fund or Kent Rosenberg rehab centre, or something. Could do the trick…
Boo hoo. It’s not an MMO. what happended to multiplayer where you just run around and shoot each other?
There are still plenty of games like that, but GTA Online has in games currency and things to purchase… If its not what you like its not like you’re spoiled for choices in games where you “just run around and shoot each other”.
this game is completely fucked, just port if over to PS4 and ensure that the same shit won’t happen there. There is no way to fix this without making everyone mad :/
we gave you $1Bill+ and you give use a piece of shit, thanks Rockstar
The single player has the Epsilon program where you can donate money through the website. Why not just copy and paste that into Online? You would be able to donate any unwanted money through it. That way, the hackers’ plot is spoiled and players don’t need to worry about losing their character. Rockstar also wouldn’t need to worry on major programming issues with the hackers until later since their problem is practically solved.
in your stats it shows the amount you have been given this would be easy starting point for reset.your not getting banned for having large amounts money theres just way to much of it out there
maybe someone is just trying to teach everyone else that money cant buy happiness?
People still playing this? Shortest lifespan ever for a GTA. Somehow the multiplayer is worse than IVs yet the single player was much better. Will never play again though.
Hopefully everyone does give up on the multiplayer so someone finally takes care of all the babies and small children I hear crying in the background.
Well in my opinion i kinda feel like maybe they should find ways to fix the bigger more spoiley hacks/cheats/exploits, like there is a DNS server hack i know you can find a way to use on youtube (wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot stick personally) that is giving you 1,000 per a store hit every time you hit it and you super leveling like a god. Or Punish the actually people/Gamers putting out these huge billion dollar bounties by banning them for a month then let them have a Trial period after the hackers/cheaters get back and if they use a hack/mod/cheat Ban them for life don’t punish the whole community as a large for some shit heads idea of pissing the community off. I chased down some guy who put a huge bounty on me wouldn’t die gave me two bill to go away take that money I dont care just leave me with some decent money. Cause personally never have used a cheat in the game kinda makes me want to stop playing after reading stuff being reset.
All rockstar needs to do is create an online app in the game that you can donate money to. Now on to god mode modders. To piss them off just walk up and punch them. Once they hit the ground just keep stomping them. They won’t die but it does help build your strength to repeatedly beat someone over and over. And make sure to talk a crap load of shit about them being a chicken while you won’t let them off the ground.
The max bounty is $9000, so not sure where these tales of massive bounty amounts are coming from…..
I honestly don’t indeed money hackers. If anything I love them. Rockstar only cares because of their pay to play tactic with the money cards