Battlefield 3 Fan-Site Sells Fake Beta Keys and Hacks, What You Need to Know
By Alex Co | May 10, 2011 | News | No comments | Share
DICE’s Battlefield 3 is a big game. In fact it’s one of the biggest of the year. When a big game with a huge following gets announced, it’s natural for fan-sites pertaining to that game/franchise to suddenly balloon in numbers. I highly doubt DICE or EA has a problem with that as its more publicity for them, more community interaction and the like.
What I don’t think EA or DICE appreciates are sites that try and scam people.
I highly doubt DICE or EA has a problem with that as its more publicity for them. What I don’t think EA or DICE appreciates are sites that try and scam people.
In the last few days, there have been murmurs going around that EA has closed down a Battlefield 3 fan-site for infringing on their trademarked assets. Truth be told, it has nothing to do with it and everything to do with the site selling fake Battlefield 3 beta keys to unsuspecting BF3 fans and Battlefield 3 hacks.
The site in question is BF3Nation.com. The site has a pop-up ad that explicitly sells Battlefield 3 beta keys, which isn’t true. DICE has not released any beta keys and I highly doubt they’d sell them if they did. In short, it’s a scam to lure in people who don’t know better.
Yup, beta keys for sale!
The “fan-site” is also selling Battlefield 3 hacks – yes, hacks for a game that doesn’t exist even in beta form.
What’s more interesting here is EA has been unable to shut the site down permanently, and if you think the people behind the site is apologetic at all, think again.
Taking a look at the site’s most recent update shows that the site owner(s) are actually enraged that EA tried to shut their site down; and the site is also upset at the other fan-sites who has called them out regarding their shady ads.
Seems to me the site owner has quite the problem in discerning what is “right” and what’s “downright smells like a barrel full of fish.”
He actually justifies the ads he has by claiming it’s not his ads per se, but from another company. That, and he states that the ad doesn’t say “beta” but “beta keys” and that the people who do sign up are “PROMPTED IN FULL WHAT THE OFFER IS ABOUT, AND EVERYONE OF THEM “CHECKS” THE “I HAVE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS”. Users should read what they’re getting into rather then (sic) later attack us without any merit.”
Without being presumptuous, that excuse is rubbish. The fact that you’re claiming your site is a devout DICE/Battlefield 3 site contradicts with the ad you’re PERMITTING to run in your site.
The site also lets out this little gem.
“For us it’s back to business as usual. If any owners of the websites that decided to bash our name think this has hurt us in ANY way, think again. In 2 weeks the story will go cold and yes, you might of discouraged some bad to the bone hardcore gamers towards our site… But you tend to forget the demographics of this niche, as 87% of gamers are purely casual ”
"If any owners of the websites that decided to bash our name think this has hurt us in ANY way, think again In 2 weeks the story will go cold."BF3Nation
So, instead of apologizing and making it up with exclusive features, interviews, honest-to-goodness video analyses and other stuff, they try to be smart-asses. Not a very good idea in my opinion. If you’re a true fan-site, you try and help the fans out with info and other things, not try and phish their personal info and whatnot away from them.
Just remember, people. Beta keys WILL come officially from DICE and EA representatives. Don’t get suckered in by any ads, deals and scams. As for hacks, if you need hacks for a game, I suggest playing something else that you won’t need to cheat to be competitive.
For the latest news about Battlefield 3, keep it locked in here on DeltaGamer. If you haven’t seen our awesome Battlefield 3 dissections, I suggest watching the one below. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
