2012 April Fools incident (2024)

The 2012 April Fools incident was a large compromise of the Roblox website, resulting in the website being taken offline for a brief period of time. While there was no actual hacking of the website, only a breach with the Roblox admin panel on the testing sites, the incident was widely referred to as such both during and after it occurred.

Information

The incident was thought to have begun when user Ellernate gained access to Roblox's admin panel by creating an account on SiteTest3 using a Roblox Administrator's Roblox username.

Ellernate was responsible for the website's most notable "hacking" on April 1, 2012 due to Ellernate gaining access by logging into an admin account on SiteTest3 (because not all admins were on the testing sites). The use of the .ROBLOSECURITY cookie, the use of the warning banner, and unauthorized user promotions are all examples of .ROBLOSECURITY cookies. In a 2017 Reddit comment, former Roblox moderator Gordonrox24 stated that "It was nothing... You won't see it happen again".^[1]

Account Hacking and Controlling

A suspected precursor to the incident was a forum discussion that devolved into an argument between Minish and Merely about money and Roblox's economy. A user called Caleb244 allegedly took over Minish's account, and Minish purchased Merely's famous Domino Crown, which was Merely's personal favorite avatar shop item. The forums quickly became inundated with threads debating the events. As a result, the two users were banned. This would also result in Merely briefly leaving Roblox.

Soon after, Ellernate-controlled accounts Pheedy and are17 were promoted to moderators and used their newfound authority to unban Minish. During this time, another user called iTrapped, or Isaac Hymer, the creator of Brick Planet, dropped the prices of hats in the avatar shop tremendously, and hats were released by the minute for 1 Robux. Some hat names were changed, such as Explosive Hair was renamed to "Rocket Hair", Hooded Spacelord was renamed to "Noob Hood", and Memento Mori was renamed to "Candle Skull".

It is believed that 1dev2's account was one of the compromised accounts. During the event, many items were added to their inventory, and their avatar was changed several times. This led to a moderator subsequently deleting their account. This ban was never lifted, but 1dev2 may have been granted temporary access to their account after the event, during which time they uncopylocked their game "Welcome to the Town of Robloxia".

Assets

During this time, the perpetrator released multiple Roblox assets on the official Roblox account. They first released a new face with the title "c:" into the avatar shop for 100 Robux. Stickmasterluke's account was the only account that bought it (or one of the breachers added it through their avatar), and anyone else who tried to buy it received an error message. The image asset for the face can be retrieved on the Roblox website. Another "c:" face was created and can also be retrieved on the website. A third face, "hai guize derp" was also released and can be accessed on the Roblox website as well.

c: A bold smiley face with a small left eye and a big right eye. This face is inspired on the stamp seen on the Lammy's shirt from Um Jammer Lammy, a rhythm game released on the original PlayStation console.

hai guize derp: A poorly drawn face with white eyes, open white mouth and white teeth. Unlike the c: and the rest of the faces, this face seems to be tilted slightly to the right, and moved slightly to the left, causing it to look asymmetrical. This face also does not use 1:1 ratio, as it looks a bit stretched when put into 1:1 ratio.

Other accounts involved during this incident include:

• DracoSwordMaster (under the control of Austin5555) was allegedly the main culprit involved in the 2012 April Fools Hack. Most compromised accounts during the hacking were terminated, including him. This was later disputed and debunked as information was found that lead to users such as Ellernate being revealed to be the culprits. The true reason for his termination is currently unknown.
• Qman1245 obtained the Dominus Empyreus, Domino Crown, Ban Hammer, and the Admin Badge. Their account was later terminated.
• Rippinz obtained multiple items released during the incident, including two copies of the Scary Hood.
• Misteroe traded away and laundered an estimated 100,000 to 350,000 Robux. There is also some speculation that player Misteroe was directly involved with the event.
• ExFamous obtained Dominus Frigidus #16 and #59 Ghostwalker, which were worth approximately eight million Robux at the time.
• Mattmlm11 was given the Sinister Fedora along with other items, but were later removed from their inventory.
• ScorpioPilot was also compromised and terminated for 6 years.
• ReeseMcBlox was among the users hacked during the incident, as shown in a forum post. When she was hacked the hackers wrote extremely inappropriate comments using her account, and it has been reported that she could not get access to her account until the event was over.
• Advir was compromised by either Minish or Pheedy. The account was used as a sockpuppet and obtained expensive items such as the Dominus Empyreus and the Domino Crown. On April 2, 2012, the account was then seen with the moderator badge at the forums before its moderation status was removed as well as some posts. The account was later terminated due to moderators believing the account was made as a part of the April fools incident.
• RobloTim was compromised by Ellernate. RobloTim eventually caught on to this and terminated Ellernate on May 3, 2012.
• McNoobster was featured on some Hacker's banners. On April 2, 2012, he and other speculated users were terminated due to direct involvement in the incident.
• Sirloin was allegedly compromised and used by Caleb244.
• Dignity was also one of the accounts temporarily unbanned, most likely by his friends.
• Proscribe is notable for being one of the only people to capture footage of the April Fools 2012 Incident while it was happening. The video he uploaded to his YouTube channel accumulated over 1,000,000 views, and the channel the video was uploaded on accumulated over 2,000 subscribers due to the video. The video was uploaded on April 2, 2012, a day after the incident. Proscribe was also one of the numerous users that were mentioned on a site warning banner by hackers during the incident.

Hats

Several avatar shop items, mainly hats that were never intended to be released were during this update with altered names. These hats were quickly taken off sale after Roblox gained control. These included:

• Crazy Skull
• Toxic Nemisis
• SteamPunk Elephant
• Dino Bandit
• Ice Law

Hacker Banners

Banners were added to the top of the website by Ellernate and frequently changed colors and displayed questionable content. In chronological order, all banners are below:

• "Hi, we are having issues with our publishing system. Hang tight yo!"
• "Bro chill we get it"
• "Yo dog y'all need to chill it"
• "Do A Barrel Roll"
• "thank you minish for messing up the economy. nub."
• "these aren't the droids you're looking for!"
• "Go out and buy some peanut butter yo"
• "You put the peanut butter in the potato and stir it all up"
• "jaredvaldez4 best builder on roblox kthxbai"
• "WHO IS IT 1x1x1x1, Dignity, Minish, Jared, The Admins? The World May Never know :o"
• "minish is climbin in yo windows. snatchin yo people up."
• "WII GUNNA FIN WII GUNNA FIN U"
• "Oh you like these headers? Tell me how you've always been such a fan"
• "OMG lik srsly becky?"
• "JOIN BUILDERS CLUB! ITS FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
• "Minish, I need you boo. I gotta see you boo. But yea this isn't Minish."
• "Yo RT stop yo ranting homies"
• "Haha these are so funny lets go spam the forums about them :D"
• "is anybody here besides minish a huge chris brown fan??"
• "Remember kids tell your parents to vote for Ron Paul"
• "Playing roblox is always better then going outside!"
• "Yo gonna give a shout out to the homies in dah hood"
• "pink. it's my new obsession. pink. it not even a question."
• "Abcedfghikjlmnoqprstuvwzyx"
• "SKRILLEX BANGARANG WUBWUWBWUBWUWBWUB"
• "I'm the annoying orange banner."
• AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA"
• "NO TOMATO IS ALWAYS BEST SILLY ORANGE"
• "minish is a stupid noob. nah not rly"
• "remember kids trust anyone with your password"
• "APRIL FEWLS"
• "Ten bux says we do roll back on today"
• "hai itz pheedy mcnoobster and minish and we taken over"
• "McNoobster in dah houze"
• "McNoobster!!!!!!"
• "Proscribe stop posting your gonna get proscribed BROOOOOOO"

Roblox's Response

After all the activity occurring, Roblox staff brought the site offline and reported that they were attempting to patch up the currency system. The website was brought back online during the late evening of that day. The site test admin panel was updated and the Roblox avatar shop was offline until the following evening.

In a Roblox Blog post on April 2, 2012, it was announced that "Roblox experienced a site issue the evening of April 1st..., and they took the site offline". They noted that "Several assets were released from the avatar shop backlog that were not ready for production", and "Several accounts were incorrectly granted large amounts of Robux; some of these Robux were subsequently traded with other accounts."

Some avatar shop items and currency transactions were audited and rollbacked, and they estimated the rollbacks occurred in fewer than 0.01% of Roblox accounts.^[2] Some items were updated with new pricing, while other items were taken off-sale. The "c:" item was changed to Dr. Smyth Face and was temporarily available for purchase after April 2, 2012.

Gallery

Users

Banners

Forums

Catalog

Assets

Miscellaneous

Trivia

This section is a trivia section. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections of the article.

• If the ID of the "c:" face is put into a face changer or mannequin, the Dr. Smyth Face displays instead.
• Some of the items prices were changed to 666 Robux.

References