Young gamer says he was hit twice by scammers selling Fortnite upgrades

(FOX 11) - A warning tonight, for anyone playing one of the world's most popular online video-games... Fortnite. Scammers are targeting players with bogus offers.

"I was really mad because I spent 100 dollars for nothing." said 12-year-old Elijah Imani.

He says he was the victim of an online scam connected to his favorite game, the worldwide phenomenon, Fortnite.

Elijah says he wanted access to advanced levels and special characters for his avatar so a few weeks ago, he logged onto the marketplace app Offerup and began communicating with someone who agreed to sell him his account in exchange for a 50 dollar Playstation card.

"So I sent him the code and I asked him to send the account info. After and he said he would and he just left and blocked me. " said Elijah.

Chalking it up to a bad experience, a determined Elijah decided to give it one more try with a different user.

"He had a 5 star rating all of his reviews were saying he's a really good seller so I kind of like trusted him and I went to target again and I got another Playstation gift card. Said Elijah.

Skeptical, Elijah was texting the seller who was making excuses and repeatedly denying that he was pulling a scam.

"So I sent him the code and he said I'll send it to you and he sent the wrong information to the account and so he just changed all of his information on offer up and just left. Said Elijah.

Out 100 dollars of his own money,the frustrated and angry pre-teen told his mom what happened.

"He was so angry and so shocked that someone can actually take his money and not give him what they promised... Very upsetting." said Natasha Imani.

The family isn't alone,scammers have been recently targeting Fortnite players offering free in game currency and then stealing personal information. Earlier this month, the game's maker, epic released a security bulletin warning users of potential scams and telling them not to buy third party accounts online. Something that the Imani family learned the hard way and are now warning others.

"This has actually made me a little more cautious from what I buy online because you can never really trust someone you don't know. ", Elijah said.

"As moms and dads we definitely need to keep that open communication with our kids and make sure that we see everything they're doing." said Natasha Imani.

Natasha Imani tried to contact the alleged scammer herself with no luck. We reached out to Epic Games but they haven't gotten back to us but clearly they are aware of what is happening and did also send out a tweet in may warning people not to buy anything unless it's from the official Fortnite game.