Scammers are everywhere, even in FIFA 17. Very rarely can you see the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI deeply embroiled in the game industry but in the recent turn of events in the football world, they stepped in to catch a team of coin scammers who mine coins and sell them at the Black Market in China and Europe.
According to the FBI report, the team created pseudo-matches that generate coins at a very high rate. They then sell those coins to third party sellers at exorbitant prices. The activity has created a million dollar industry in itself. The scammers were able to do their illegal activity from 2013 to 2015 and a profit which amounted to around $18 million.
EA must have been aware of this and must have been the one who called the FBI about it. The Bureau stepped in and confiscated pieces of evidence which included game peripherals, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the accounts of the three members, a Lamborghini and more than $2 million from the Bank of America under the account of the suspected ringleader. This also explains why a lot of YouTubers do not want to be associated with coin sellers.
The FBI arrest would have been impossible without the help of Xbox Underground, a group of hackers which the team were reportedly affiliated. The team was said to be extremely helpful and even helped the FBI retrieve several Xbox and gaming paraphernalia. They also helped the agents reverse engineer a pirated copy of FIFA 14. According to the reports, one member was more eager to help as he let the FBI have access to his Xbox account nd message history. This was what led to the arrest of the scammers.
Reports have confirmed that the trial has already started in Texas.
