2012 April Fools incident (2024)

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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.

Contents

  • 1 Information
  • 2 Account Hacking and Controlling
  • 3 Assets
    • 3.1 Hats
    • 3.2 Hacker Banners
  • 4 Roblox's Response
  • 5 Gallery
    • 5.1 Users
    • 5.2 Banners
    • 5.3 Forums
    • 5.4 Catalog
    • 5.5 Assets
    • 5.6 Miscellaneous
  • 6 Trivia
  • 7 References

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

Stickmasterluke wearing the "C:" face as seen on a video of a player visiting the Roblox page during the 2012 April Fools incident.

An example user's avatar after being compromised from the incident.

Banners

An event banner saying "Thank you Minish for messing up the economy. Nub."

An event banner saying that the hackers will spam the forums about "them".

An event banner saying "I'm the annoying orange banner".

Changes to headers, one red, one orange and one pink.

A banner spelling every letter of the alphabet.

A banner saying "APRIL FEWLZ".

A banner saying "NO TOMATO IS ALWAYS BEST SILLY ORANGE".

Forums

A forum post by are17, who was one of two users to randomly become a moderator.

A post by Chro, one of several staff accounts that was hacked. Profanity has been edited out.

Minish saying about buying 6 million.

Pheedy saying "miss me? lollol".

jirachidog's forum post about hackers scamming items.

Another forum post of are17 during the compromise.

Profanity has been edited out.

Part of Minish's forum posts.

Pheedy's account was compromised and given a Dominus hat. Profanity has been edited out.

A user sharing their speculations of the culprit behind the incident.

Catalog

The "c:" face was one of many faces released by the individuals.

The catalog during this incident.

Assets

The "c:" face.

The "hai guize derp" face.

Miscellaneous

The Roblox website shutdown page at the time of the incident.

Briguy9876 stating that this "April Fools prank" wasn't a prank by Roblox.

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

  1. (2017). What was the April Fool's Hack of 2012?. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/roblox/comments/7irz8i/what_was_the_april_fools_hack_of_2012/
  2. David Baszucki. (2012). Site Issue Resolved. Roblox Blog. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20220527110553/https://blog.roblox.com/2012/04/site-issue-resolved/
2012 April Fools incident (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Roblox on December 11, 2012? ›

On December 11, 2012, an iOS version of Roblox was released.

What was added to Roblox in 2012? ›

November 2012

Roblox released major HUD changes, including Lua side chat and a new backpack design. The new chat was criticized due to long messages cutting mid sentence. The backpack receives a major revamp, with almost everything made an image, and the backpack button and menu moved and joined on top of the backpack.

Where did the Roblox C face come from? ›

c: was a face that was published in the marketplace on April 1, 2012. It was made during the 2012 April Fools Hack by user Ellernate. It could have been purchased for 100 Robux, but it was given to only one user, Stickmasterluke, whose account was assumed compromised.

What is the 666 story on Roblox? ›

He's an old Roblox myth and creepypasta who was rumored to have admin commands in any games they joined (even ones without admin built in), and whenever a player hovered the mouse over a guest image when viewing game servers, their name used would appear as "An Evil Guest" instead of "A Friendly Guest" like it normally ...

What happened on April 1st, 2012? ›

Mali: Tuareg rebels seize the town of Gao and the largest military base in Mali amid the ongoing Tuareg Rebellion (BBC) (AFP via Google News) Rebels claim to have surrounded Timbuktu.

How long was the longest Roblox shutdown? ›

The outage lasted 72 hours and 45 minutes, or just over 3 days, making it the longest outage in Roblox history.

Did Roblox exist in 2001? ›

Roblox Corporation (/ˈroʊblɒks/ ROH-bloks) is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. Founded in 2004 by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel, the company is the developer of Roblox, which was released in 2006.

Did Roblox exist 2013? ›

The beta version of Roblox was created by co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 under the name DynaBlocks. ... On October 1, 2013, Roblox released its Developer Exchange program, allowing developers to exchange Robux earned from their games into real-world currencies.

Was Roblox made in 1995? ›

Roblox was founded in 2004. The founders were David Baszucki and Erik Cassel. The main headquarters are located in San Mateo, California. The first couple hundred builders of Roblox were all developers, investors, testers, and friends of the founders.

What happened on 1st April 2012 Roblox? ›

Their first hack was on this day. The hack was thought to have begun when user Svenler gained access to Roblox's admin panel by creating an account on SiteTest3 using a Roblox Administrator's Roblox username. Svenler was responsible for the website's most notable hacking on April 1, 2012.

What is the oldest Roblox face? ›

The normal face is the default face for avatars and was the only face available until others were made. It is a basic smile. The original face was drawn by David Baszucki on October 4, 2005 (originally resembling Bighead, it was squeezed due to texture glitches) and shows two eyes with a V smile.

How did Roblox get hacked in 2012? ›

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).

What is the longest Roblox crash? ›

The outage lasted 72 hours and 45 minutes, or just over 3 days, making it the longest outage in Roblox history. The exact cause of the outage is because there was a coding issue with the website, but Roblox stated that it is an internal cause and not an external one.

What happened on February 11 2013 Roblox? ›

On February 11th, 2013, the Roblox staff stated on the Roblox Twitter account that Erik Cassel had "lost his fight with cancer" earlier in the day at the age of 45. Keith confirmed it in the late hours in a forum post. A blog post was then created later in the day.

What is the most horrifying game on Roblox? ›

Here are some of the scariest Roblox games you can play on your smartphone, tablet, or PC.
  1. 1 Apeirophobia. Explore the infinite. ...
  2. 2 Cheese Escape. Don't be fooled by the name. ...
  3. 3 Dead Silence. Collect clues and solve the mystery. ...
  4. 4 Doors. Open the right doors to escape your pursuer. ...
  5. 5 Geisha. ...
  6. 6 Identity Fraud. ...
  7. 7 It Lurks.
Apr 28, 2024

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