'I had a golden ticket to victory': Guy counter-hacks a young 'hacker', the successfully teaches him a lesson and steals back his account

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 7, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

There are some RPG games that you put your whole heart and soul into. It takes weeks, months, and sometimes years to build up the riches in your profile as you do side quests, engage in raids, and tackle the game's storyline. For OG gamers who played Runescape, you know exactly how much work goes into creating an envy-worthy account. That account becomes your baby.

Gamers in our next tale experienced the greatest woes known to man: They got hacked. After building up a solid profile (one they claimed was worth at least $5,000 to a buyer), one gamer's success was met with jealousy and, ultimately, theft. After getting their prized account stolen from a hacker online, they quickly learned that the thief was a dirtbag teenager pushing the limits online. But how do you take back what's rightfully yours in this situation?

Scroll for the entire story of how a pair of gamer friends totally pwned the pinheaded young hacker who stole their account, taunted them, and finally learned a valuable lesson about privacy on the internet. 

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  • 01
    "It took all of 30 seconds before the kid was totally freaking out and begging me not to call his dad"
    via canva
  • 02
    r/pettyrevenge ⚫ TheVaneja Young 'hacker' found his ... way into the wrong account and paid for it.
    via TheVaneja
  • 03
    This isn't anything spectacular but I figure some will get a kick out of it. It has been long enough I might be remembering certain things wrong but the overall story is true.
    via TheVaneja
  • 04
    So this was back in 2002/2003ish. I was somewhat addicted to the MMORPG Runescape. I had a lot of friends but there was one friend in particular that I played with a lot. We were both fairly invested in the game and were in the top 2000 on
    via TheVaneja
  • 05
    the leaderboards at the time. We both had well developed accounts worth enough that I was offered $5k for my account once. I suspect it was a scam attempt but it gives a vague idea of what our efforts might have been worth if we'd decided to sell our accounts.
    via TheVaneja
  • 06
    One morning I log into... I think it was MSN Messenger that we talked on most of the time, and my friend is very upset as his main account was hacked into. Weak password, keylogger, someone he trusted betrayed him: I
    via TheVaneja
  • 07
    don't know. However it happened he couldn't get in. Worse, the person who did it managed to get his contact information and was taunting him over chat, threatening him and trying to blackmail him.
    via TheVaneja
  • 08
    I was enraged and after about 2 hours of convincing he finally agreed to give me the contact info of this person so I could talk to them. I'm no tech genius but I know a few tricks my friend didn't and was too upset to learn at the time.
    via TheVaneja
  • 09
    don't remember if it was from Runescape or MSN but I got the person's IP address, and the whois tool to look up IP addresses was something I'd used a few times. So while I start laying into this person I'm also looking them up. I know there's only so much information I can get but it's worth a try.
    via TheVaneja
  • 10
    It's very quickly clear I'm speaking to a kid. Maybe 10 at the very youngest, more likely 14-16 range. And he's so cocky it was unbelievable. Just before whois spits out his details he says his dad is a cop and he's immune to anything. But then whois gives me a
    via TheVaneja
  • 11
    Police Department in a town in California as the source of the address. I'd never seen so specific information before but I wasn't about to question it. I'd expected to get the region and use that but now I had a golden ticket to victory. It took all of 30 seconds
    via TheVaneja
  • 12
    before the kid was totally freaking out and begging me not to call his dad as I rattled out his home town and where his dad worked. I couldn't just call his dad even knowing the police department location (no long distance on my phone at the time) but he didn't know that.
    via TheVaneja
  • 13
    An hour later my friend had his account back. With bonus gifts. The kid was transfering items and gold around and all my friends' gold was gone, but I guess my timing was awesome because there was 10x the value of the missing gold in items that he gained in exchange. My friend and I played for another year or two before moving on.
    via TheVaneja
  • 14
    shesinsaneornot 23 hr. ago Petty revenge with a side of justice (friend's account was restored, with apology gifts). Well done!
    via shesinsaneornot
  • 15
    Beginning-Record-908. 23 hr. ago Dont think its petty, you did a solid both to your friend and even the hacker by teaching him a lesson. Well done
    via Beginning-Record-908
  • 16
    bigbigdummie 18 hr. ago Similar story. A rando was harassing my friend who operated a BBS. Using the info he left, I found a lot of info including his college. Called the school as an employer doing a check, gave me everything else I
    via bigbigdummie
  • 17
    needed including his ss#. Gave it all to my friend who gave it back to the rando in a private message, implying he had more. That was his last call to that BBS. See? You're never too old to be 14 again, I guess.
    via bigbigdummie
  • 18
    contigo717 21 hr. ago I've never been a gamer, but RuneScape around this time was awesome and my favorite game I'd ever played besides madden. Was slightly hooked myself definitely wasn't as good as you seemed to be though but had a lot of fun
    via contigo717
  • 19
    TadzJaz 16 hr. ago The amount of times I had my account hacked with my stuff stolen, this brings me a lot of satisfaction. Thanks for the story!
    via TadzJaz
  • 20
    guestername 18 hr. ago that story brings back some wild memories, friend. reminds me of the time i got into it with a real crafty hacker back in the day. had to pull out some old school tricks to get the upper hand, just
    via guestername
  • 21
    like you did. always feels good when you can turn the tables on someone tryin' to do you wrong. glad your buddie got his account back safe and sound.
    via guestername
  • 22
    Klutzy-Horse 16 hr. ago I used the same tactics to get a kid to quit griefing a Minecraft server I moderated. I couldn't outright ban him, so I figured out his general area, told him it was a comfortable night, go take
    via Klutzy-Horse
  • 23
    a walk, and (shot in the dark) I'm sure his parents fighting was bothering him again. He flipped out, ran through a ton of names trying to figure out who exactly I was. Finally got so freaked out he vanished. Felt great.
    via Klutzy-Horse

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deserved RPG game gamer runescape hacker hackers gamers hack hacked irl video games payback
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