Epic Games has sped up repercussions for Fortnite players who used V-Bucks and refunded them through an exploit on Xbox, essentially getting the in-game currency for free.
As we moved into the weekend, the studio said it had now “fixed a delay” and would be claiming back any items that were bought through currency that had been refunded on Xbox or previously gifted from fraudulent accounts.
Acknowledging the system it uses to revoke items on Xbox between December 2024 and July 2025 “malfunctioned”, the company warned some players “may now see a message that their payment was reversed or refunded and see recent items have been removed, even from transactions from several months ago”.
It comes after some Xbox players abused an exploit through which they could buy V-Bucks through Microsoft, apply them to their accounts, and then refund them.
After clarifying this “does not affect regular purchases on Xbox or any other platform that weren’t refunded”, the Fortnite Status X/Twitter account added:
Update on Xbox refund issue:
Ordinarily, when a player receives a refund of a real-money Fortnite purchase, the purchased items are removed from their account. When V-Bucks are purchased, spent, and refunded, causing the player’s V-Bucks balance to go negative, items most…
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 6, 2025
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“Ordinarily, when a player receives a refund of a real-money Fortnite purchase, the purchased items are removed from their account,” Epic explained. “When V-Bucks are purchased, spent, and refunded, causing the player’s V-Bucks balance to go negative, items most recently purchased and gifted with the refunded V-Bucks are removed from the player’s account and the gift recipient’s account.