2012 April Fools incident

On April 1, 2012, a major incident on Roblox caused many elements of the site to be changed, including banners, catalog items, and user accounts. 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, and former administrator Gordonrox24 responded 5 years after the incident saying, "It was nothing... You won't see it happen again".

Timeline of Events

Ellernate along with iTrapped and Caleb244 accessed the Admin Panel around April 2012. One of them created an account on SiteTest3 under a Roblox Administrator's Roblox Username which caused the incident. A month after, around Early May, One of the three used the Admin Panel to duplicate the Domino Crown a numerous amount of times. Due to the duplication, when using R+ , there are almost twice the amount of originally given out Domino Crowns. This also shows how weak the security for ROBLOX was at the time.

Soon afterward, users Pheedy and are17, both accounts under the control of Caleb244, became moderators.

On April 2, 2012, Ellernate was terminated due to gaining access to the Admin Panel. Additionally he was also deleted due to being involved with the incident and for compromising RobloTim, a staff member. Everyone that accessed the panel were also caught and deleted. Ellernate's alternate account was "builderkid" which was deleted for unknown reasons. When viewing Builderkid's posts, they show Ellernate talking about the admin panel. Ellernate eventually came back on an alternate account around June 1, 2012 known as "EllernateAlt." The account claimed that he recorded a 30 minute long video about the admin panel as seen here. He also claimed his account was IP-Banned. Ellernate eventually helped run an external competitive site known as Brickplanet with iTrapped.

New Catalog Items

During the event, multiple new Roblox assets were released. A new face was released into the catalog with the title c: 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 c: 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 again.

Banners

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

"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 then 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."
“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"
"WHO IS IT? 1x1x1x1,Dignity,Minish,Jared,The Admins? The world may never know :o"
"WII GONNA FIN WII GONNA FIN U"
"You lik these headers? Tell me how you’ve always been such a fan"
"APRIL FEWLS”
"SKRILLEZ BANGARANG WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB"
"Proscribe stop posting your gonna get proscribed BROO"
"Bro chill we get it"
"Yo dog ya'll need to chill it"

Affected users

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.

Misteroe

Misteroe 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.

EXFamous

Similar to Misteroe, EXFamous 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.

Gaara51

Gaara51, a LMaDer was also one of the players that got away with getting free items from the incident. This included Dominus Empyreus. He was later hacked on an unknown date which caused him to lose the limiteds. Possibly due to this, he has quit Roblox since.

Rippinz

Rippinz was also one of the few players that got away with obtaining free items from the April Fools Incident. Some limiteds seen from the April Fools event in Rippinz's inventory includes two copies of the Scary Hood.

1dev2

It is confirmed that 1dev2s account was one of the accounts that were also 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 other account, 1dev3.

Merely

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.

Qman1245

Qman1245 was a rich trader. During these events his account was compromised. The account gained the Dominus Empyreus, Domino Crown, Ban Hammer and the Admin Badge. This account was later terminated.

Stickmasterluke

Stickmasterluke was the only user to ever own the C: face, but his account was otherwise unaffected.

Aftermath

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 1 at around 8 PM 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.^[1] 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.