Filipino indie game targeted by cryptocurrency scam photo gtom Verinius photo from Lawmage Academy
Cyber Games

Filipino indie game targeted by cryptocurrency scam

Aug 25, 2021, 11:51 AM
Heloise Diamante

Heloise Diamante

Writer

Verinious discovered that a group used game assets from Lawmage Academy and turned them into crypto tokens claiming that playing the game will let players earn real money.

Filipino developer Verinious shared his experience when his RPG game was hit by IP theft and cryptocurrency token scam last week.

Since 2018, Verinious has been working on his first game, Lawmage Academy where players enter a school of magic to train and eventually become a protector of the continent, Magusgaia.

The demo was released on Steam in October 2020 for free and has been featured in online blogs, magazines, and played by veteran players, streamers, and more.

However, on August 20, Verinious woke up to friends and players messaging him asking about a new cryptocurrency called ‘Lawmage’

After more digging, he discovered that a group used game assets from Lawmage Academy and turned them into crypto tokens claiming that playing the game will let players earn real money.

But the cybercriminals did not expect that they would be reported quickly and efficiently thanks to the developer’s knowledge of the law.

Verinious is a full-time lawyer and works on the game during his free time.

After posting screenshots of the scrupulous Twitter account selling the Lawmage currency, the developer reported the intellectual property infringement to authorities.

He also tracked down the group’s Telegram group and warned his followers from buying their tokens.

By next day, Lawmage cryptocurrency sales dropped by 99 percent.

In an interview with IGN, he advised his fellow indie developers to act fast and protect their intellectual property.

"You have to act fast in cases like these because the last thing you want is for people or courts to say: 'Why didn’t you do anything about it?'," said Verinious.

While he and the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Office of the Philippines are working together to investigate the situation, Verinious is working on getting his social media accounts verified.

As for the game, development continues to improve the game in time for its full release this year on Steam.

Tags: #videogames, #cryptocurrency, #cryptoscam, #Verinious


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