Legal threats from Grand Theft Auto Online’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, wiped out popular PC cheatmaker Luna Cheats over the weekend and even gave the money to donate to charity.
The Luna Cheats website is now a single page, empty except for a 50-word apology to the GTA Online community, and a promise to “donate our proceeds to a charity designated by Take-Two.”
With Luna Cheats’ modem menu, GTA Online players can enter god or ‘semi-god’ mode, twist their running or swimming speed, regain armor and health, and also use a variety of heart attacks on other players of the massive multiplayer mode . such as inflating them or sending their vehicle into the atmosphere. The ability to spawn hundreds of cars can bring down servers and slow down the game for others as well.
Eurogamer, which first reported the shutdown, noted that the abuse of hacking and modeling appears to be on the rise Grand Theft Auto 5 was given away for free in the Epic Games Store.
Grand Theft Auto Online is the ongoing multiplayer world of 2013 Grand Theft Auto 5, which almost eight years after its launch still commands a huge audience (and microtransaction revenue). It is therefore still a ripe target for cheat makers.
Take-Two’s legal team has committed fraud against sellers over the years; in 2018, they get an order in federal court to shut down someone who made and sold two GTA Online mods, which also allowed fraud and sadness, like Luna Cheats.