Last month, Twitch experienced a devastating data breach that resulted in sensitive information like streamer payouts, passwords and a bunch of other stuff being leaked online. Recently, members of the Turkish Valorant community have inspected the leaked files and pointed out several small streamers receiving unusually high amounts of donations in the form of bits.
According to a report from Middle East Eye, hackers have been using the streaming platform to launder almost $10 million in bits. The alleged streamers reportedly had about 50 viewers, but received significant sums of money in donations.
Jake Lucky explains in a recent Tweet that these scammers have been hacking Twitch accounts to donate bits to the streamers. He also claims that some accounts might be using bots to watch ads on the platform to earn bits and then mass donating those as well.
As mentioned in a VLR.GG report, most of these small streamers seem to be Turkish Valorant players. “The approximate amount is looking to be 300 members in the Turkish VALORANT scene, both players and streamers,” Corentin Phalip mentions in a Tweet.
Twitch mentioned in a statement to Dexerto that they have taken action against 150 streamers in September for abuse of its monetization tools.
“Recently, members of the Twitch community have expressed concerns toward the legitimacy of some creators’ revenues in Turkey. We want to assure our community that we do not hesitate to take decisive action against accounts engaged in prohibited conduct,” a Twitch spokesperson said.