2012 April Fools Incident

"It was nothing... You won't see it happen again." -Gordonrox24, a former Roblox moderator

The 2012 April Fools Incident is a major incident that occurred on April 1, 2012, causing many elements of the site to be changed, including banners, catalog items, and user accounts.

Overview
Users affected by the incident reported that their accounts could no longer be accessed until after the incident. David Baszucki, the founder of Roblox, responded after the incident saying that the site was restored.

By the morning of April 1, 2012, a user by the name of DracoSwordMaster had gotten access to the administrator only features of the site and had caused the now infamous event, changing elements of the site to their bidding. By the end of April 1, 2012, administrators had gained access back to the site and restored most of the damages caused by DracoSwordMaster.

History
On April 1, 2012, a user known by the community as DracoSwordMaster was in access to an Administrators account. Allegedly caused what would become the website's most notable "hacking". It involved the currency system and item catalog, the use of the warning banner, and unauthorized user promotions. In a 2017 Reddit comment, Gordonrox24, a former moderator, noted that "It was nothing... You won't see it happen again." Despite letting Draco in. There were 5 players involved in the hacking, Ellernate, Caleb244, ITrapped, Austin5555, and LordVade.

The suspected precursor to the event was a forum discussion that deteriorated into an argument between Minish (a terminated user that was unbanned and used by DracoSwordMaster during the hack) and Merely involving money and the economy of Roblox. Minish bought Merely's famous Domino Crown for 12 million Robux, which was Merely's personal favorite catalog item. The forums soon exploded with threads discussing the events. As a result, the two users were each given bans. This would also lead to Merely briefly quitting Roblox.

Soon afterward, users Pheedy and are17, both accounts under the control of by Caleb, became moderators.

Ellernate
Ellernate was the main user involved in the incident. He got access to the admin panel on the DracoSwordMaster account. Ellernate did harmless things adding the strange banners and changing roblox items names. He gave the admin power to Caleb and ITrapped. He also gave himself limited items and robux. He was terminated afterwards.

Caleb244
Caleb was another person involved in the incident. He was given the admin panel by Caleb compromised other staff accounts and posting inappropriate forum posts. He had got away for about a month before he was terminated.

ITrapped
ITrapped was another person involved in the incident. He was given admin panel access by Ellernate. ITrapped went way too far by destroying the whole website. He compromised accounts, changed item prices, terminated roblox accounts and much more. He was terminated after the incident.

DracoSwordMaster
Draco was the lead in the incident. This account was under control of Austin5555. Draco had compromised the accounts like Pheedy, are16, and Minish. They were all given the Moderator badge. Pheedy and are16 were bragging in the forums when they were given robux and limited items. They were under control of Draco. Draco had then made the face called ":)". He was terminated a day later, but his DracoBulletMaster account was not.

During the incident, many players begged for Robux by linking clothing for insane prices.

During the event, multiple new Roblox assets were released. A new face was released into the catalog with the title on the official Roblox Catalog for 100 Robux. The only account to purchase it was Stickmasterluke, whose account was assumed to be compromised. The face's image asset can be retrieved from the Roblox website. Another face was made, which can also be retrieved on the website. A third face called "hai guize derp" was also released and can be accessed via the Roblox website. A year's worth of hats was released for small prices ranging from 10 to 100 Robux. As well as this, three off sale hats were put on sale for 1 ticket. These were Crazy Skull, Steampunk Elephant, and Toxic Nemisis. After the admins regained control of the website, these three items were taken off sale indefinitely.

Banners were also added to the top of the site, which frequently changed colors and displayed questionable content. Examples include (but are not limited to) the following:

"thank you minish for messing up the economy. nub.",

"always share your passwords with strangers, kids!"

"Haha these are so funny let's go spam the forums about them :D"

"Remember kids tell your parents to vote Ron Paul"

"Yo gonna give a shout out to the homies in dah hood"

"Abcedfghikjlmnoqprstuvwzyx"

"OMG like srsly Becky?","JOIN BUILDERS CLUB! ITS FREEEEEEEE!!!!"

"Yo RT stop yo ranting homies"

"Playing Roblox is better than going outside!"

"pink. Its my new obsession,pink. it not even aquestion."

"I'm the annoying orange banner.

AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. "

"NO TOMATO IS ALWAYS BEST SILLY ORANGE"

"minish is a stupid noob. nah not rly."

"Do a Barrell Roll"

"jaredvaldez4 best builder on roblox kthxbai

"minish is climbin in yo windows. snatchin yo people up."

Multiple users were granted large amounts of Robux throughout the event. Although most of these accounts were apparently rolled back, it is speculated that some users managed to evade losing the entirety of their newfound wealth. Some examples include:


 * 1) Misteroe, who managed to evade a ban and successfully trade away and launder an estimated 100,000 to 350,000 Robux. There is also some speculation that Misteroe was directly involved with the event. This claim is supported by the fact that Misteroe would later go on to be responsible for the firing of 3 Roblox administrators, most notably JacksSmirkingRevenge;
 * 2) EXFamous, who, similar to Misteroe, successfully got away with owning Dominus Frigidus #16 and #59 Ghostwalker, two items combined worth around 8 million Robux. However, in 2016 he was terminated for asking how the subforum Clans and Guilds was doing;
 * 3) Gaara51, a LMaDer who got away with getting free items from the incident.  This included Dominus Empyreus.  He was later hacked in an unknown date which caused him to lose the limiteds.  Possibly due to this, he has quit Roblox since.
 * 4) Rippinz, who got away with obtaining free items from the April Fools Incident.  He has kept the limiteds gained, however.  Some limiteds seen from the April Fools event in Rippinz inventory includes two copies of the Scary Hood.
 * 5) 1dev2, who was one of the people whose accounts were compromised. Many items were put into his inventory during the event, and his avatar was changed multiple times. His account was subsequently terminated by a moderator. This ban was never revoked, but 1dev2 was possibly allowed temporary access into his account after the event, which during that time, he uncopylocked his game "Welcome to the Town of Robloxia". He is currently active on his new account, 1dev3.
 * 6) Merely was banned as a result of his discussion with Minish. Several users claimed Merely gave them false bans and was responsible for the attack, but these claims have been proven false. After the website went back up, Merely was unbanned and now is a high-ranking member.
 * 7) Stickmasterluke was the only user to use own the C: face, despite this, he didn't get banned.

After all this activity occurred, 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 April 1st, at around 8PM PDT. The Trade Currency system and Roblox Catalog were 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 catalog) 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".

One confirmed user to benefit from the large influx of artificial Robux was Misteroe, although it is not clear if this is statement is directly referencing him. Some catalog and currency transactions were audited and rolled back, and they estimated the rollbacks occurred in fewer than 0.01% of Roblox accounts. Some items were updated with new pricing, while other items were taken off-sale. The "c:" face was changed to "Dr. Smyth Face" and was temporarily available for purchase. Around April 4, 2012, everyone who was involved in the attack was terminated, IP banned, warned, or temporarily banned. Some of these users were innocents, such as 1dev2, and some were compromised, such as Minish.

Links
https://roblox.fandom.com/wiki/2012_April_Fools_incident

Trivia

 * The 2012 April Fools Incident is considered to be the one and only time when Roblox truly got hacked.