Editorial: the games / Facebook social networking site / Twitter / YouTube / Instagram / News / Discord / Forums
Imagine working at Microsoft and earning a fairly decent salary, only to get lost after two years due to your greed and desire to become a millionaire. Although it sounds like the story of a typical Hollywood movie, the truth is that it happened in real life and its hero did not have a happy ending.
the middle Bloomberg He revealed the strange story of engineer Volodymyr Kvashuk who joined the ranks of Microsoft in 2017. The job of this young man was very simple but important: to simulate purchases in the platform store to ensure that payment systems were working properly. However, he soon noticed a mistake that allowed him to accumulate a fortune of millions of dollars in the coming years.
A small mistake made a big profit
Accounts used to test purchases are usually marked by the system, preventing a real transaction and merchandise generation from occurring. However, Volodymyr Kvashuk found that every time he uses his gift cards, he gets real codes.
With a gold mine in front of his eyes, the employee decided to take advantage of this bug to generate $10 and $100 tokens while working for the company. In addition, he used multiple profiles and helped some of his co-workers to hide his trail.
Discover: Microsoft’s market value reaches $2 trillion
As if this were not enough, Volodymyr Kvashuk created a program that allowed him to automate the process and increase the speed with which he created gift card codes, which he later sold online at discounts of up to 55%.
Of course, greed encourages you to expand and look for better ways to generate income. Such is the case with Kvashuk, who decided to go to marketplaces like Paxful to exchange Xbox gift cards for cryptocurrency.
According to a report BloombergThe engineer sold 300 cards for 1.98 Bitcoins, which at the time was the equivalent of about $17,240. In total, he allegedly stole and sold 152,000 Xbox gift cards, raised $10.1 million and purchased a house on the lake.
All that goes up must come down; Microsoft has detected your employee’s actions
Unfortunately for Volodymyr Kvashuk, his efforts to get his dream home were in vain. In 2018, Microsoft’s fraud investigation team, known as FIST, noticed an increase in online purchases using gift card codes, so they began investigating the cause.
Soon, Volodymyr Kvashuk’s misdeeds surfaced and he was fired from Microsoft, while in February 2020 he was charged with crimes such as money laundering, identity theft and wire fraud.
In case you missed it: Microsoft says Xbox growth in Japan is ‘extraordinary’
Finally, in November 2020, a judge sentenced him to 9 years in prison and had to pay a fine of $8.3 million.
But tell us, what do you think of this strange case? Let’s read to you in the comments.
You can read more news about Xbox by clicking this link.
Source 1 and 2