How to prevent Hackers from stealing your town? Someone stole mine.

[Bluebellie]

I just found my old town Achrome being used. Everything was left the same except no credit was given. My designs some were removed some where not. The only difference I see is that they changed the characters name, and switched out the mayor for a guy. My town is Achrome (mayor Onyx). Dream code 5D00-00D0-3E9F

The hacked town is also called Achrome , but mayor kami.
The town is exactly the same as mine. They did not change the houses at all. They only changed one character and the names of the others. Dream code is 5D00-0147-C83E.

No credit was given. This person made my town public, copied my designs and made them public as well. I had not made my design public in the original town.

Is there a way to get that town removed? How to prevent this from happening?

 

[Kirbyz]

This is awful! I have no respect for people who do this. People work so hard to make their town the best it can be and some hacker just comes and simply copies it with no problem at all. These people have no heart I'm not sure if you can get the town deleted but I can look into it for you and post back letting you know.

 

[Stella-Io]

It's not easy for a hacker to rip a dream from just the code, but don't get me wrong, it's still very possible. And just the code alone.

If you have shared any of your QRs online, those are at risk to be ripped already. It's very easy to rip them, even I could do it, and I'm not a hacker. Ripping designs from QRs doesn't require hacking. If you haven't shared the QRs, it's still possible to rip them.

Does this person have a tumblr or twitter? I could, send them something.

 

[RedTropicalPeachyFish]

I could, send them something.

Wow.

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That, is very upsetting. I wish I could give you any tip.
At least...... they doing it means they wanted your town like theirs - your town is worth and something that made them think they want it. Because I loved your town, it IS SO upsetting though.

 

[ScaryGhosts]

Dude, that sucks, I’m sorry. I was actually going to visit your town today (still will). I literally wrote your da in my notebook last night. That has to be really upsetting. I have no advice, only sympathy.

 

[Bluebellie]

It's not easy for a hacker to rip a dream from just the code, but don't get me wrong, it's still very possible. And just the code alone.

If you have shared any of your QRs online, those are at risk to be ripped already. It's very easy to rip them, even I could do it, and I'm not a hacker. Ripping designs from QRs doesn't require hacking. If you haven't shared the QRs, it's still possible to rip them.

Does this person have a tumblr or twitter? I could, send them something.

Nah it’s fine. I’m just sort of venting. I tried to see if the other person had posted the dream address somewhere else, but I couldn’t find it in any other sites. The qrs I don’t really care much, since I’m in the process of revamping the whole town. I get that people can get inspiration from a town, but this person didn’t use it as inspiration, they copied the whole layout, all the pwp, the characters, every single house, every single room, and they didn’t make it themselves or anything. They just uploaded as if they themselves had created the town. The only way I found out, is because I’m revamping the town. I started over, and I kinda wanted to visit the old one to see one of the rooms, and then I noticed someone else with the same town name.

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Dude, that sucks, I’m sorry. I was actually going to visit your town today (still will). I literally wrote your da in my notebook last night. That has to be really upsetting. I have no advice, only sympathy.

Aww thank you.
I actually had seen you previously and it looks like we had similar town themes. I couldn’t find your dream address through.
I liked the town name.

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Wow.

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That, is very upsetting. I wish I could give you any tip.
At least...... they doing it means they wanted your town like theirs - your town is worth and something that made them think they want it. Because I loved your town, it IS SO upsetting though.

Yeah I was a bit flattered at first, but somewhat sad, because I worked hard on it, and someone was able to replicate it exactly so easily.

I’m scared to eventually post the new dream code now though, since I like the new town much better.

 

[ScaryGhosts]

Ah, my DA is not ready yet, but almost. And ty, I love yours too ^^.

 

[Bluebellie]

This is awful! I have no respect for people who do this. People work so hard to make their town the best it can be and some hacker just comes and simply copies it with no problem at all. These people have no heart I'm not sure if you can get the town deleted but I can look into it for you and post back letting you know.

Thank you!
I visited and then just put that I didn’t enjoy my dream when I woke up. I believe there was another
Member here that it happened too. I don’t think we’re able to do much.

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Ah, my DA is not ready yet, but almost. And ty, I love yours too ^^.

Cool. I will be on the lookout for when you post it

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

So they duplicated your town from a dream code? That is a new one.

 

[Bluebellie]

So they duplicated your town from a dream code? That is a new one.

Yeah, the town is exactly the same as mine. Same name, map, same placement. Same characters (except the mayor that they changed).
Same season. Same landscape. Same houses, same furniture deco.

It looks to be a hack job.

 

[Shellzilla_515]

Yikes! All more the reason why I don't like hackers with malicious intents. How they even managed to do so in the first place, I don't know. How did you find out they were stealing your dream town? To make you feel better, I decided to visit your dream address. I'll let you know later!

 

[pocky]

Back when town editing first became a thing it was very easy for someone to steal a dream town and make it their own. I won't go into detail since I think it's against the rule to discuss these sorts of things. However, I can say that this method of stealing dream towns was patched with the release of Welcome Amiibo. It is no longer possible to steal somebody's town via the Dream Suite.

I visited both town and saw that yours was made in 2014 and theirs in 2016 (two months before the release of Welcome Amiibo) so I think it's very likely this person stole your town before the update that made it impossible to do so. Then they probably just updated it to Welcome Amiibo and continued to play with it this way.

If you believe that your town was stolen AFTER the Welcome Amiibo update then it probably wasn't done via the dream suite. Someone would have needed to have direct physical contact with your cartridge in order to do that.

edit: after doing some research i was able to find the tool those hackers used. it's indeed still possible.

 

[Bluebellie]

Back when town editing first became a thing it was very easy for someone to steal a dream town and make it their own. I won't go into detail since I think it's against the rule to discuss these sorts of things. However, I can say that this method of stealing dream towns was patched with the release of Welcome Amiibo. It is no longer possible to steal somebody's town via the Dream Suite.

I visited both town and saw that yours was made in 2014 and theirs in 2016 (two months before the release of Welcome Amiibo) so I think it's very likely this person stole your town before the update that made it impossible to do so. Then they probably just updated it to Welcome Amiibo and continued to play with it this way.

If you believe that your town was stolen AFTER the Welcome Amiibo update then it probably wasn't done via the dream suite. Someone would have needed to have direct physical contact with your cartridge in order to do that.

It couldn’t have been made in any other form other than the dream suite. My ds never leaves my house, and my family members don’t really play ds, so it isn’t possible it was a cartridge hack or something of the sort. Unless there’s other ways other than the dream suite. This dream town was made after the amiibo update though. I think it says 2014 because I time travel? It was actually created around 2018. I know because I posted a post right after making it into a dream. This is the post: https://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?444952-What-do-you-guys-think-of-my-town . I guess they figured out a way around the update fix.

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Yikes! All more the reason why I don't like hackers with malicious intents. How they even managed to do so in the first place, I don't know. How did you find out they were stealing your dream town? To make you feel better, I decided to visit your dream address. I'll let you know later!

Aww ok thank you
Any tips appreciated since I’m remodeling it big time.

I noticed there were two towns because I have two cartridges. I made a new town (Gothica) in my other cartridge to redo Achrome. I wanted to make it better but sort of keep most of the theme. I went to visit Achrome by dream to see a specific room, and I noticed there was a second Achrome ( whereas there have always just been mine in the dream suite). I visited and I noticed it was an exact replica of my town.

 

[pocky]

It couldn’t have been made in any other form other than the dream suite. My ds never leaves my house, and my family members don’t really play ds, so it isn’t possible it was a cartridge hack or something of the sort. Unless there’s other ways other than the dream suite. This dream town was made after the amiibo update though. I think it says 2014 because I time travel? It was actually created around 2018. I know because I posted a post right after making it into a dream. This is the post: https://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?444952-What-do-you-guys-think-of-my-town . I guess they figured out a way around the update fix.

Weird. I can't go into detail because we're not allowed to discuss those things in the forums. But the current tools that are out there make it impossible and the ACNL developing scene is pretty much dead. There isn't much activity because the tools that are out are already perfect so there is no need to develop anything new (not to mention that hackers have moved on to newer titles)

How did you become aware of the copy?

edit: after doing some research i was able to find the tool those hackers used. it's indeed still possible.

 

[Bluebellie]

Weird. I can't go into detail because we're not allowed to discuss those things in the forums. But the current tools that are out there make it impossible and the ACNL developing scene is pretty much dead. There isn't much activity because the tools that are out are already perfect so there is no need to develop anything new (not to mention that hackers have moved on to newer titles)

How did you become aware of the copy?

I noticed today. I know this new copied town is fairly new. It wasn’t there a couple of days ago.
I have two cartridges. One of Achrome and one of Gothica. I created Gothica because I wanted to re-create and make Achrome better. So I started a new game in a different cartridge and selected a better town map, etc. However the theme and idea was going to be the same. I visit Achrome v?a dream address every so often to see the landscape and a couple of the rooms I’m recreating in Gothica. Today went I when to visit I noticed there were two Achromes. I thought that was weird because it’s not a common Town name and because since I created it, there has always been one. I decided to visit it and when I did, I noticed it look the same as the Achrome I created. That’s how I noticed there was a copy around.

 

[hellFlower]

there's nothing you can do to stop it unfortunately. downloading dream towns is still very much possible and very easy at that.

hopefully the cloned town can be deleted, i took a little look at your town and you can really tell you put a lot of effort in it. it's a shame some dilweed had the gall to steal it.

 

[Athelwyn]

Back when town editing first became a thing it was very easy for someone to steal a dream town and make it their own. I won't go into detail since I think it's against the rule to discuss these sorts of things. However, I can say that this method of stealing dream towns was patched with the release of Welcome Amiibo. It is no longer possible to steal somebody's town via the Dream Suite.

Yeah, this isn't true. The exact same thing happened that happened to Bluebellie happened to me my town of AHS, after the Welcome Amiibo update. It definitely was not before. The entire town is copied. They changed the mayor's name and changed the path to hearts or something; scattered random flowers around, but every other single thing in the town is identical (last time I looked), including my patterns that I've never made public or shared in any form that would allow someone to rip them. I stopped playing for a long time after that happened.

 

[Bluebellie]

Yeah, this isn't true. The exact same thing happened that happened to Bluebellie happened to me my town of AHS, after the Welcome Amiibo update. It definitely was not before. The entire town is copied. They changed the mayor's name and changed the path to hearts or something; scattered random flowers around, but every other single thing in the town is identical (last time I looked), including my patterns that I've never made public or shared in any form that would allow someone to rip them. I stopped playing for a long time after that happened.

I remember your post back then. Where you ever able to find a way to prevent it?
Also I had visited your AHS town before, I enjoyed it very much

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there's nothing you can do to stop it unfortunately. downloading dream towns is still very much possible and very easy at that.

hopefully the cloned town can be deleted, i took a little look at your town and you can really tell you put a lot of effort in it. it's a shame some dilweed had the gall to steal it.

Aww thank you for visiting
I figure it’s just easy by this point to copy since the game has been around a long time. I hope in the new game it’s harder to do or not possible.

 

[LadyDestani]

I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's awful that someone would steal your town and pass it off as their own. I've visited your town before and it was so cool and unique. I really liked it and can't wait to see what you do with your new town because I sure couldn't think of any way to improve on it.

 

[Noctis]

So sorry this happened to you. I didn't even know this was even possible to do. I understand many have such amazing towns and one just wishes they could be able to do so the same. I've been to many dream towns and a lot of rooms just look the same, maybe slight different at times. Makes me wonder well who was the original one here.