Warning about Club Tortimer

[kisaker39]

...

 

[corvus516]

Not even being dramatic when I say this is beyond upsetting to me. I don't even have a problem with hackers inherently, a lot of my most memorable experiences in New Leaf and other games like MK7 come from hackers turning the game into fun chaos; it's awful that malicious hacking has started to outweigh that recently.

 

[CozyVillager]

This seems to be a common problem with lots of 3DS games nowadays. It's been a few years since the GTS has been accessible in many Pokemon games. It's almost impossible to scroll through without stumbling upon some hacked Pokemon that will freeze the game and force you to power your system off and back on again. It used to be harmless to scroll over them, but somehow they've found a way around it. At least in some games such as MK7 it can be funny to encounter!

 

[Yoshi155]

I know it’s kind of late but this really sucks. I just started going to Tortimer Island recently and now I’m learning that it’s not even safe

 

[Vanilla Coffee Bean]

@Mr_Keroppi
Yeah, that kind of activity those hackers are doing is disgusting. There are so many different things to do, and they choose to wreck people's lives. It's also not your camera you have to worry about, but your whole town. One time, my housemate had come home from work one day and played on Club Tortimer with some person who she thought was real nice. They went on many tours together, helping each other get more island medals, and for the first time in ages, she didn't feel harassed.

Straight after that, she saved and quit the game, unaware of what had happened, then she stopped playing for several months. To her horror, her whole town was reconstructed. We both know this for a fact because she records and logs her activity on a word document, so that she can work towards her badges.

Note: she is currently trying to solve the problem by restarting her town and see if everything goes back to normal, but she is researching first, as the e-shop has shut down, and she bought new leaf before amiibo was available, she wonders if she'll get locked out of the update if she resets her town. Even with all the disadvantages the hacker did, she feels like she's cheating if she kept it. If she's getting locked out of the update, she'll wait until her brother and I have got the gold Streetpass badge, then she'll restart her town.

This is everything the hacker did:

1. Blocked her time travel. She is only allowed to TT via her 3DS clock, not in-game. I cannot confirm myself if it works on my system because I don't TT, but when we talked about it to her brother, he checked his game and he was allowed to TT via the game.
2. Her eye shape and hair type had changed. The colours had changed too.
3. Her avatar and town name has been changed.
4. Fortune teller shop that was a public's work project she completed, has now been demolished.
5. Her birthday, registration date, some dates stated in the town plaza tree have been altered.
6. Deleted some badges (catalog, encyclopedia, streetpass), and put badges in she has not yet recieved (Gold Dream Badge - she hasn't yet set foot inside the Dream Suite yet),
7. Wiped out her encyclopedia and museum
8. Her home was reconstructed. A home that was all paid off, now she has to pay it all off again. All items in her storage room is permanently gone because she's "downsized". Items are missing, some items were put there that wasn't there before. I remember what her house looked like before through both Streetpass and going to her town via local play.
9. Her catalog has been half deleted. Before, she had the silver catalog badge, now she has bronze. The items she did have in her catalog she couldn't have possibly obtained because they were all Amiibo items that belonged to Amiibo she has not owned.
10. Not every day, but some days she will find Welcome Amiibo items (exclusive to either balloon presents after finishing balloon furniture, Harvey's Shop, RVs, additional fortune cookies, the 3DS and WiiU minigames etc) after shaking trees. I am certain you wouldn't normally be able to obtain a doctor's desk from anywhere but Raddle's RV, which she does not even have the Amiibo for it.
11. She has the beautiful town ordinance in effect *as told by Isabelle*, however weeds grow every day, and things like Super T&T have extra hours!!!!

My advice is just go to the offline version, either go alone, or on another's Tortimer's Island, with one you could trust. Not that my housemate is too trusting. All she wanted to do was find an orange wet suit, then as she was trying to leave there was this "nice person trying to reach out". She didn't remember who the person was, but she was the only person she interacted with that day and everything was fine before then.

And well, I can't really prove that it's been done because there's no screenshots of the before, because well, even though it's expected from a laptop or another personal computer device, no one expects to get hacked on a 3DS game. And quite frankly, it's possible Switch gamers are just as vulnerable as 3DS gamers.

 

[Charcolor]

if it's absolutely necessary to go to club tortimer, i wonder if backing up your save file would help (like taking the contents from your SD card and having a backup on your computer) ...or would the hacker retain access to your save file?
this is really scary. it's sad that people feel the need to do this. what do they gain? it's just sadistic.

 

[Zinnia.]

@Mr_Keroppi
Yeah, that kind of activity those hackers are doing is disgusting. There are so many different things to do, and they choose to wreck people's lives. It's also not your camera you have to worry about, but your whole town. One time, my housemate had come home from work one day and played on Club Tortimer with some person who she thought was real nice. They went on many tours together, helping each other get more island medals, and for the first time in ages, she didn't feel harassed.

Straight after that, she saved and quit the game, unaware of what had happened, then she stopped playing for several months. To her horror, her whole town was reconstructed. We both know this for a fact because she records and logs her activity on a word document, so that she can work towards her badges.

Note: she is currently trying to solve the problem by restarting her town and see if everything goes back to normal, but she is researching first, as the e-shop has shut down, and she bought new leaf before amiibo was available, she wonders if she'll get locked out of the update if she resets her town. Even with all the disadvantages the hacker did, she feels like she's cheating if she kept it. If she's getting locked out of the update, she'll wait until her brother and I have got the gold Streetpass badge, then she'll restart her town.

This is everything the hacker did:

1. Blocked her time travel. She is only allowed to TT via her 3DS clock, not in-game. I cannot confirm myself if it works on my system because I don't TT, but when we talked about it to her brother, he checked his game and he was allowed to TT via the game.
2. Her eye shape and hair type had changed. The colours had changed too.
3. Her avatar and town name has been changed.
4. Fortune teller shop that was a public's work project she completed, has now been demolished.
5. Her birthday, registration date, some dates stated in the town plaza tree have been altered.
6. Deleted some badges (catalog, encyclopedia, streetpass), and put badges in she has not yet recieved (Gold Dream Badge - she hasn't yet set foot inside the Dream Suite yet),
7. Wiped out her encyclopedia and museum
8. Her home was reconstructed. A home that was all paid off, now she has to pay it all off again. All items in her storage room is permanently gone because she's "downsized". Items are missing, some items were put there that wasn't there before. I remember what her house looked like before through both Streetpass and going to her town via local play.
9. Her catalog has been half deleted. Before, she had the silver catalog badge, now she has bronze. The items she did have in her catalog she couldn't have possibly obtained because they were all Amiibo items that belonged to Amiibo she has not owned.
10. Not every day, but some days she will find Welcome Amiibo items (exclusive to either balloon presents after finishing balloon furniture, Harvey's Shop, RVs, additional fortune cookies, the 3DS and WiiU minigames etc) after shaking trees. I am certain you wouldn't normally be able to obtain a doctor's desk from anywhere but Raddle's RV, which she does not even have the Amiibo for it.
11. She has the beautiful town ordinance in effect *as told by Isabelle*, however weeds grow every day, and things like Super T&T have extra hours!!!!

My advice is just go to the offline version, either go alone, or on another's Tortimer's Island, with one you could trust. Not that my housemate is too trusting. All she wanted to do was find an orange wet suit, then as she was trying to leave there was this "nice person trying to reach out". She didn't remember who the person was, but she was the only person she interacted with that day and everything was fine before then.

And well, I can't really prove that it's been done because there's no screenshots of the before, because well, even though it's expected from a laptop or another personal computer device, no one expects to get hacked on a 3DS game. And quite frankly, it's possible Switch gamers are just as vulnerable as 3DS gamers.

this is awful! i’m very sorry to hear this happened to her. If resetting doesn’t fix the issues with ordinances, tree furniture, and time traveling, she may need to uninstall the game, then reinstall it in the e-shop if she has the digital version. (if not, then just un/reinstalling the update might work.) Although you can’t download new titles, you can still uninstall and redownload purchases titles and updates safely. Also, resetting doesn’t uninstall the update and game, you’d need to do it manually using the system settings —> data management page.
Is there any chance she uploaded a dream of her town before the hacker ruined things? If so, and if it’s still in the dream database, it’s possible her town could be recovered. if you need more information about how to do this i can pm you the details and try to help.

---

i wonder if backing up your save file would help (like taking the contents from your SD card and having a backup on your computer)

Yes, backing up your sd card would help a lot if you have the digital version. There’s a folder that has all of the game data, including your town info, that you can replace a messed up folder with in the future, restoring your game and everything in it to how it was when you made the backup, without needing to hack your 3ds. The title of the folder is the title id of the game, which changes depending on whether or not you got the game with the WA update pre-installed and the game’s region.
also- don’t swap or switch title id folders between two different 3DS systems.

...or would the hacker retain access to your save file?

The hacker may have copied your some of the contents of that folder if they visited your town or dream address, (such as the garden_plus.dat with all town, villager, and player data), but shouldn’t be able to edit your copy remotely without visiting your town via train station or seeing you on tortimer island. so if you don’t use tortimer island and removed them from your 3ds friends list and best friend chat, you should be perfectly safe from having it tampered with further.

---

I would also like to warn people of “chat-hackers” who have been hijacking people’s best friend chats and forcing them to say hurtful or strange messages. the worst part is that you can‘t tell when you’re being chathacked because you can’t see the messages the hacker has sent in your name. They can also just butt into your conversations using their own name if they want.

it’s really getting out of hand D:<
please be careful guys.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

snip

You cant back up your save using the SD card to my knowledge for cartridge games. I know the digital versions can be backed up through settings on the 3DS though! Im planning on buying a power saves hack for 3DS devices to back up my 3DS games just in case.

snip

Im so sorry that happened! Thats absolutely horrible. Hackers have just gone insane. I would be devastated if my town and badges and everything I have been working towards for years was deleted. Hackers can really do anything now.

Its also spread to the Dream Suite. I have been trying to get the gold dreamer badge and some dream towns will not let you leave so I have to restart my entire system.

Snippy

Everything that you all have been saying is really sad as this means the ACNl hacking is getting even worse. I thought it was at an all time high when I posted this but its just worsening over time. Thank you all for responding!

DO NOT EVER visit Club Tortimer if you care about your 3DS or ACNl save. The island is perfectly fine but online with randoms is no longer safe at all

 

[Yoshi155]

@Mr_Keroppi
Yeah, that kind of activity those hackers are doing is disgusting. There are so many different things to do, and they choose to wreck people's lives. It's also not your camera you have to worry about, but your whole town. One time, my housemate had come home from work one day and played on Club Tortimer with some person who she thought was real nice. They went on many tours together, helping each other get more island medals, and for the first time in ages, she didn't feel harassed.

Straight after that, she saved and quit the game, unaware of what had happened, then she stopped playing for several months. To her horror, her whole town was reconstructed. We both know this for a fact because she records and logs her activity on a word document, so that she can work towards her badges.

Note: she is currently trying to solve the problem by restarting her town and see if everything goes back to normal, but she is researching first, as the e-shop has shut down, and she bought new leaf before amiibo was available, she wonders if she'll get locked out of the update if she resets her town. Even with all the disadvantages the hacker did, she feels like she's cheating if she kept it. If she's getting locked out of the update, she'll wait until her brother and I have got the gold Streetpass badge, then she'll restart her town.

This is everything the hacker did:

1. Blocked her time travel. She is only allowed to TT via her 3DS clock, not in-game. I cannot confirm myself if it works on my system because I don't TT, but when we talked about it to her brother, he checked his game and he was allowed to TT via the game.
2. Her eye shape and hair type had changed. The colours had changed too.
3. Her avatar and town name has been changed.
4. Fortune teller shop that was a public's work project she completed, has now been demolished.
5. Her birthday, registration date, some dates stated in the town plaza tree have been altered.
6. Deleted some badges (catalog, encyclopedia, streetpass), and put badges in she has not yet recieved (Gold Dream Badge - she hasn't yet set foot inside the Dream Suite yet),
7. Wiped out her encyclopedia and museum
8. Her home was reconstructed. A home that was all paid off, now she has to pay it all off again. All items in her storage room is permanently gone because she's "downsized". Items are missing, some items were put there that wasn't there before. I remember what her house looked like before through both Streetpass and going to her town via local play.
9. Her catalog has been half deleted. Before, she had the silver catalog badge, now she has bronze. The items she did have in her catalog she couldn't have possibly obtained because they were all Amiibo items that belonged to Amiibo she has not owned.
10. Not every day, but some days she will find Welcome Amiibo items (exclusive to either balloon presents after finishing balloon furniture, Harvey's Shop, RVs, additional fortune cookies, the 3DS and WiiU minigames etc) after shaking trees. I am certain you wouldn't normally be able to obtain a doctor's desk from anywhere but Raddle's RV, which she does not even have the Amiibo for it.
11. She has the beautiful town ordinance in effect *as told by Isabelle*, however weeds grow every day, and things like Super T&T have extra hours!!!!

My advice is just go to the offline version, either go alone, or on another's Tortimer's Island, with one you could trust. Not that my housemate is too trusting. All she wanted to do was find an orange wet suit, then as she was trying to leave there was this "nice person trying to reach out". She didn't remember who the person was, but she was the only person she interacted with that day and everything was fine before then.

And well, I can't really prove that it's been done because there's no screenshots of the before, because well, even though it's expected from a laptop or another personal computer device, no one expects to get hacked on a 3DS game. And quite frankly, it's possible Switch gamers are just as vulnerable as 3DS gamers.

I really don’t understand why people would just ruin something someone else has spent months on for no reason. Hackers suck. (At least the ones like that)

 

[Charcolor]

i recently hacked my 2ds (but not anyone else's i promise!!) and that lets me back up my save data even though my copy is physical (apparently. i haven't like, tested it so hopefully this is the case.) but i'm not risking going to club tortimer...i guess it's lucky i've already gotten what i needed from there in the past.

do dream suite hackers do anything besides force you to reset your game? i'd still like to visit dream towns, hopefully it's at least safe to visit ones you're familiar with (like your friends' towns or older, well-known dream towns...)

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

i recently hacked my 2ds (but not anyone else's i promise!!) and that lets me back up my save data even though my copy is physical (apparently. i haven't like, tested it so hopefully this is the case.) but i'm not risking going to club tortimer...i guess it's lucky i've already gotten what i needed from there in the past.

do dream suite hackers do anything besides force you to reset your game? i'd still like to visit dream towns, hopefully it's at least safe to visit ones you're familiar with (like your friends' towns or older, well-known dream towns...)

For me, Dream Towns only cause saving and game reboot issues so far. After restarting everything goes back to normal and since its not really them grtting to your save or anything it should be fine! They will know what town and player character you are as Luna can tell you recent visitors.