EVE Gets The Space IRS In

Back in December, CCP realized that rampant piracy was distorting the EVE economy and responded the best way it possibly could - by blowing everything to smithereens.

This sordid tale begins with a group of starbases that were producing materials far beyond their specifications. It turns out that a group of players discovered an exploit allowing starbases to produce output without first having any input; in other words, create something from nothing. By milking the exploit for all it was worth, the players raked in trillions of illegal ISK's (EVE's currency).

Once CCP figured out which starbases were creating these products, they channeled their inner Luke Skywalkers, basically flying up to the bases and hitting that thermal exhaust port. BOOM.

After the destruction of the offending reactors, the ban-nuke went off catching 134 players within its blast, shredding their accounts, ships and ISKs. This wasn't just the reactor owners but "fences" that had been used to launder the money as well.

Of the seven corporations involved, two were trading to real life money, but most of the in-game items that were proven to be involved, even indirectly, were destroyed.

CCP then went on an Internal Security sweep to make sure that the exploit hadn't been leaked from inside the company. The company is also re-evaluating all of its bug-checking, system-checking and general report-checking to make sure this never happens again.

We shall see.

Source: Slashdot