Have you ever traded with other players? (pic: Epic Games)



An increasing number of Fortnite players’ accounts have been banned for ‘trade scams’ in the Save The World mode. 



Punishing cheating, and players who attempt to defraud others, is at the forefront of every game’s community rules, including Fortnite. 



Compared to other games, Fortnite does not have as much trouble with cheating and toxicity. Not long ago, Activision announced it had banned over 500,000 Call Of Duty accounts but that’s not something that generally happens in Fortnite.



However, Epic Games looks to have launched a crackdown on item trading, after the v23.20 patch update changed how Fortnite’s Save The World mode worked.



Save the World is a player-vs-environment mode, not a battle royale, and was originally supposed to be the main mode of Fortnite.



In Save the World items can be evolved across multiple tiers to unlock new features and give a significant boost in terms of base stats. 



As trading isn’t a supported feature in Fortnite, many players strike deals to drop certain items for other players to pick up, in hopes they return the favour with something useful. 



However, some players don’t keep their part of the deal and this practice can result in you losing valuable items. 



Some players have even ended up being scammed for real money or V-Bucks that they chose to exchange to get certain items. 



As these deals usually happen outside the game, there’s usually no punishment for the scammers… at least until now. 




Epic is now banning users for “Trade Scams”, according to a new string that was added in this update. I assume this is related to trades in Save the World. — Shiina (@ShiinaBR) January 18, 2023




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Fortnite leaker Shiina claims that Epic Games has started banning players for ‘trade scams’ according to a new code string that was added in the v23.20 update. 



Despite the string not mentioning Save The World, it’s likely that this is the mode that Epic Games is targeting, as it’s notorious for trading. 



Most players that saw Shiina’s post were relieved that Epic Games has launched a crackdown on trade scammers, whereas others suggested the addition of an in-game trading mechanism, to make it all official.



One Fortnite player even joked that they hoped that they didn’t try to scam anyone in the past, as presumably they’ve not played this mode in a long time.



It’s unclear how Epic Games plans to track these deals, which seems like it would be impossible if they’re made outside of the game.



For now, it’s best to avoid dropping items for strangers, as not only are you at risk of getting played but you may also get banned for it.



Deserved!
So glad they’re finally cracking down on this!
— Infinite Reality • ༺(