Wargaming plans to recover 8 million euro from a cheats website

~ Sebastianul

Wargaming demands through the court the recovery of 670 million rubles from a cheats maker.

The “Cyber Tank” case has reached court, details have emerged, and the story itself has been made public in the federal media.

A precedent has been set in Russia for bringing to criminal responsibility any unauthorized interference (with the help of malware) in the gaming computer industry. Such popular online games as World of Tanks and World of Warships were hit by the alleged attacker. For several years on his website, Yekaterinburg native Andrey Kirsanov, according to police, managed to sell thousands of packages with bots and cheat programs that allowed users to gain unfair advantages over other players. The damage caused to the creators of the games is estimated at 670 million Russian rubles ($9,095,536).

The Cheremushkinsky District Court of Moscow has begun considering a criminal case against Yekaterinburg resident Andrey Kirsanov, accused of creating, using and distributing malicious computer programs (Part 2 of Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This case is a precedent for Russia. In any case, before that, no one was brought to criminal responsibility for unauthorized interference in the gaming computer industry. Basically, according to this article of the Criminal Code, the defendants had to be responsible for attempts to hack the logins and passwords of users to log in to various Internet resources with the help of malware. In cases of this kind, the defendants managed to avoid real criminal responsibility — consideration in the courts ended, as a rule, with a suspended sentence or a fine.

It should be noted that initially the case against the defendant Kirsanov had to be heard in a special order, since during the investigation the defendant himself, who fully admitted guilt and repented of what he had done, petitioned for this. However, at the very first court hearing, Andrei Kirsanov, according to Kommersant, unexpectedly announced that he was withdrawing his confessions and would not admit guilt in the incriminated act. As a result, on December 27, 2021, the court will begin to examine this case in a general manner, with a study of all evidence, as well as interrogations of witnesses and victims. Mr. Kirsanov himself is on his own recognizance not to leave.

The criminal case, of which he turned out to be a person involved, was initiated by the Department of Internal Affairs for the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow in the spring of 2021 based on the materials of the office “K” of the Bureau of Special Technical Measures (BSTM) The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The injured party in the case was recognized by the Belarusian company Wargaming, which is a publisher and developer of computer games, including the popular tank and marine online action games World of Tanks and World of Warships.

According to the company’s representatives, since the release of the games, a large number of malicious programs have been created for them that allow users to gain unfair advantages over other players — these are the so-called bots and cheats. According to Wargaming, some users lose interest in the game, including due to the fact that rivals use such malware.
According to the company’s representatives, only last year more than 10 thousand bots were banned from the game in World of Tanks.

As established by the staff of the BSTM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, since 2015, bot and cheat programs for playing World of Tanks and World of Warships were traded through the sites Cyber Tank and Cyber Ship. After unauthorized interference in the program in a battle with an online opponent, the player could use the auto-aim or even put the game in auto mode. In the first case, the program itself found the most vulnerable points of the enemy. Because of this, the players who used the bot got an unfair advantage: it was not difficult for them to run into an opponent who played honestly and relied only on his skill. In the autoplay mode, the so-called bot took full control of the player’s vehicle and allowed him to “earn” experience and in-game currency in automatic mode. Depending on the number of fights, the price of the package on Andrey Kirsanov’s website varied from 25 rubles. (150 battles) up to 2125 rubles (15 thousand battles).

As a result, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a verification of Cyber Tank and Cyber Ship programs via the Internet. According to the experts’ conclusion, both were malicious because they “led to the modification of computer information.”

Andrey Kirsanov was summoned for questioning first as a witness, but soon changed his status to the accused.

Nikita Kuznetsov, the legal representative of Wargaming, said that the injured party had prepared an expert examination that established damage in the amount of 670 million rubles.
“In court, we will petition to attach its results to the case file. Creating and selling programs that violate the rules of the games and their internal economy is the same crime as theft or fraud, and it needs to be countered in the legal field,” Nikita Kuznetsov added.

It was not possible to get comments from the defense of Andrey Kirsanov (the creator of “Cyber Tank”/”Cyber Ship”).

Source – wotclue

41 thoughts on “Wargaming plans to recover 8 million euro from a cheats website”

    1. wouldn’t call anything a cheat unless it improves tank speed or reload or vision or RNG or anything related to that really.. these “cheats” only for example calculates shell velocity and distance + enemy tank speed he is going at to have the reticle on position where you should shoot to hit it.. basically useless for good players. So yes, there are no cheats in the game, only helping illegal mods for terrible players..

        1. 10 years in the game with ~4500 avg dmg with any t10 tank, only 90% of player base that is below 1k WN8 can be butthurt about it and looking at the numbers yes, then would agree aim assists shouldn’t exist as well so would make it equal between player base, but what can better players do if there is absolutely no competition in the game while aim assist is completely useless for us, Ranked battles also full of boosted bots in gold leagues. I need proper competitive play, but then again that 90% decides to cry about RNG that it sucked qus they suck themselves not like they would think they can do better than a pro.. so Wargaming league is gone… try to take my point without ignorance and don’t lie to yourself qus that’s straight facts

          1. I need proper competitive play, but then again that 90% decides to cry about RNG that it sucked qus they suck themselves

            You’re funny guy.

            WoT failed as esport and will never be a credible competitive game precisely because of RNG and other crap mechanics like premium rounds. Also, bad players only benefit from RNG, it’s you supposed pros who get shafted and cry about it.

            Want to test your skill in a competitive environment? There’s several games with an actual esport component to them, World of Tanks is not one of them.

          2. Stop it with your running amok and acting like a moron.

            Atm from the two of us, I am the one that is not hiding behind meaningless usernames and claiming bullcrap here. 🙂 Keep that in mind.

            You are saying that these tools that calculate weakspot angle and preaim for you are not cheats? If you would be at least half as good player as you claim yourself to be, you would know it takes at least hundreds, but most likely thousands of hours to learn everything that a normal aimbot calculates by simply pressing a “lock on” button on your keyboard. Each tanks’ weakspots (a quick cos counting in your head, sounds familiar?) and max speed? Each of your tanks’ shell’s velocities so you know where to preaim? Put in the new Field Mods into the mix for a new learning experience.

            Oh, so the rest after you click “shoot” is up to the server and the trash WG pseudorng? (both the trash aim circle distribution hoax and the laughable 25% pen/dmg distribution after you hit – btw WG never said what kind of distribution it is) How great, all is forgiven then!

            You can see top pro FPS players kill aimbot users. Why? Because it is not impossible. The question is how big of the skill curve you can skip with your cheat.

            And in the case of WoT, it’s quite substantial. What skills you can not imitate with the current WoT cheats? Probably only map awareness and target prioritizing that suits your agenda… Nothing else rings the bell, but even these have handy helpers (that made it into the game eventually).

        1. Define Cheat.
          A cheat in the traditional way is entering a code like “iddqd” in the chat/console and becoming invincible, having unlimited gold, credits or ammo etc. Those classic cheats do not exist in WoT.
          3rd Party trainers, Bots and “helping mods” are illegal too of course, but they are something else.
          I actually like that they go to court with that though. The outcome will be really interesting.

          2. LoL. trying to be a smartass by applying random and nonsensical ‘rules’ to commonly used terms (among gamers no less)

            So okay, your logic applied:
            You can NOT “cheat” at the Olympics games, since drugs are applied by syringes, NOT by hitting LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT A B START…

            Should I sign you up to the Olympics? the special ones? I think you would do GREAT!^^

      3. wargaming themselves are saying those bots/cheat offered players unfair advantages, so why waste time trying to make excuses about those things

    2. wargaming has never denied the existence of bots/cheats in their games, including some mods that provided players with too much information (weakspots, etc)

  4. Glad they finally acknowledges aimbots exist instead of banning anybody who said aimbots exist

    1. Did ypu ever read the text ? Who saod anything about aimbots ?
      The man was making bot (it “plays” games for you) software.
      Jeez, use your brain. No need to be a bot yourself…

    1. Are you saying you’re taking OP’s name seriously and genuinely think he’s a hacker? Damn I hope this is a joke from a fan or friend, because if not… You’re pretty special.

      1. Yes, because all hacker do have names like “Haxxormastercode666” … its their code of honor!

        Either that or i was referring to the fact that this is about as serious as it gets when it comes to WG and hacking. It’s literally ‘part of the program’. They would not care if it bit them in the rear.

        There is no anti cheat software in wot, heck, there is not even a filter for the public chat.
        (we had those filters running in MIRC in 2002 + private server with basic anti cheat tied to it)

        This news above has no meaning what so ever. Removing 1 group cause they want a PR stunt and get a bit of money out of it wont stop dozen of other groups doing just the same (as long as they dont look like a tasty target)

        so congratulations, you almost were onto me… my naive friend ♥

        1. Remind me why exactly they would waste time and resources on developing an anti-cheat when cheating isn’t a problem in the first place? Everything is done server-side. There are no meaningful cheats that give a significant advantage. Unlike something like Warzone where cheaters have a massive advantage, skill reigns supreme in WoT.

            1. Firstly, everyone has equal RNG. Secondly, shooting premium ammunition isn’t going to magically make you a 4000+dpg player. You’ll still be doing 1300 at tier 10, bud.

              1. Sorry, “bud”, but when RNG determines the outcome of the match (too many instances where one side gets more low rolls than the other loses) and when premium ammo negates what is supposed to be a tank’s advantage (armor) for a paid fee (credits), that’s hardly skill at work.

                2. What a surprise. You’re one of those people. Shocker. Keep doing 1300 at tier 10 and blaming it on everything but yourself, bud.

                  1. Are you dumb? He is pointing out a very valid problem with the game and you just sweep it under the carpet because his stats are not up to your standards? You might be a genious in WoT but you’re definitely retarded in real life.

                    1. That’s probably his stock answer to those he disagrees with, wonder if he uses it IRL as well.

                      Also, never try to reason with a stats obsessed prima donna, you’ll get nowhere and they’ll only get more reason to annoy you and everyone else.

              2. “Firstly, everyone has equal RNG.”

                That is a nice false statement. Everyone has the CHANCE to have an equal RNG (same chance as everyone has the chance to win the lottery lol).

                But in reality with how RNG works in today’s computer science, one side will always have the advantage right from the get go (until we have true quantum computers).

                Saying it will eventually balance out (which is your kind’s next argument) is another false implication btw. What if 2 guys has the advantage then by the time they would be on the losing side, the other 2 they were against simply quit the game? Or the next time the 2 previous winners play the game, and one of them will have the advantage while the other will not. Or in comes some fresh blood, 2 new guys joined the game, and the same repeats again because “it’s rng” and no one checks how “lucky” someone is.

                Or lets get something simpler, 1v1, one side gets 3 big roll shots first then 3 lower rolls, the other side the opposite. By the time the (obviously losing side) would get to shoot their “big rolls”, they are already dead so they will never have “big rolls”. Yeah, nice equal rng. 🙂

                A few simple examples about your hilarious “equal RNG” statement that can be smitten to pieces at each and every step. Learn a bit more about how RNG works and come back. 🙂

                What this game has under the disguise of “RNG mechanics” is nothing more than an outdated frustration inducing piece of crap.

                But… at least we still get 50% equipment discounts… Oh wait.

  8. Wargaming should pay to him making this available for years, knowing that and not doing anything about that. Whole clans using those cheats for years, WG know that and they give a fuck for that until they earn money from players, so they are same as cheat maker. How far that gone when he managed to earn millions $, shame on you WG.

  10. This is why there is no wot eSports because wot is known as a cheaters paradise.
    It’s just that even with cheats the players are useless bots…..

    1. Paid hacks are only part of the problem.

      When WoT was esport the matches were all BatChat 25t with full premium ammo and food, and they were as boring as Yugioh matches back when Dark Armed Dragon meta was the trend.

      Also, no one liked RNG, but WG always refused to address that (like, at least reduce or remove RNG for certain game modes?).

      1. You don’t understand. Other countries like Russia and China see and have no problem with cheating. It’s accepted and getting caught is no issue in any sport.
        Americans the ones obsessed with people cheating and how terrible it is when someone is caught cheating.

        1. Actually, I do understand.

          Chinese clowns cheating in World of Warships is a common problem on all servers, and it seems to be a cultural thing in all Asian countries – win at any cost, no matter how underhanded the methods. This extends to far more important things than videogames, such as international sports competitions (see Russia’s state sponsored doping scandals which has been a thing since the days of the Soviet Union, or South Korea bribing everyone at FIFA 2002 because as the host nation they had to reach the finals).

          If they want to do it on their home turf, by all means. But don’t throw the trash in your neighbourg’s lawn.

  11. I think Wargaming’s atrocious balancing and direction they are taking the game in have cost them more money than this bot program.
    It’s one of the main reasons players leave after all, they get fed up with the nonsense that is happening in battles.

  12. hope they win as that would mean for all these years wargaming has been lieing toall the honest players all these years and should then be forced to pay all the honest players compensation for lieing to us that they dont exist and it not possible to cheat and give every player there money back since start of the game and extra for compensation to teach wargaming we were right all along and they lied

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