Details of how the GTA 6 trailer leaked have been revealed. The full timeline of events and who did it was just posted on Twitter by a well-known Internet sleuth. A lot of GTA fans wouldn’t have expected to get inside the way it leaked, but here we are.
Setting the stage
The GTA 6 trailer that was leaked a day earlier will go down in history. Not only in the gaming industry, but also in the history of the Internet. This shocked fans and developers alike. Despite the craziness of that fateful evening, some fans wondered how on earth it happened.
The main theory was that the leak came from YouTube due to recent other game leaks that happened before demos were set to premiere on YouTube. Assuming the trailer was leaked by a YouTube/Google employee with backend access, fans thought something was being done internally.
We recently shared a report from Insider Gaming which stated that an investigation was launched at Google shortly after the GTA VI trailer was leaked. It’s not confirmed if this is the case, but it added some support to the idea that a Google employee or some other bad actor stole the video from the backend of Rockstar’s YouTube channel.
How the GTA VI trailer was leaked
Since then, a crypto fraud detective known as ZachXBT has revealed the inside story on Twitter about how exactly the December 4, 2023 leak happened.
Zach states that the person behind the leak is a “threat actor” who goes by the name “Skenkir”. This person has purchased access to the YouTube admin panel, the YouTube backend. Employees thus have full access to all channel videos, including private ones. Zach shared an image of the trailer’s admin panel, which can be seen by Google employees. It is not known how much the apparent Google employee was paid.
Timeline of the leak
Now to the timeline and the messages sent by the bad actor. At 20:50/51 UTC, Skenkir tells someone that he has a GTA VI trailer and wants to post it with a BUY $BTC watermark. As we know, the trailer was indeed leaked with the text BUY $BTC. Skenkir also said he doesn’t know where they can post it.
A few minutes later at 20:58, Skenkir offers this unknown contact a “little sneak peek”. The logo and release year from the trailer is sent. Then exactly 1 hour later, the trailer was released on Twitter on the @Gta6trailerleak account. It racked up millions of views before Take-Two Interactive hit the hammer on copyright.
Speaking of Twitter (currently known as X), the site’s owner Elon Musk says he can’t play GTA because of the violence. Rockstar Games also trolled Twitter over their current CEO, begging for the GTA VI trailer to be released on the platform.
A known con artist
Zach also stated that Skenkir has been involved in criminal activities for some time. According to the detective, Skenkir appeared in more than 40 high-profile SIM swapping situations. Targets included the likes of Steve Aoki. All these incidents took place in the last year or so.
SIM swapping is phishing to get a new SIM card with the victim’s number. This then renders the current SIM dead and an attacker can receive two-factor authentication codes to access accounts and data.
This is not the first time a leak channel has been exposed. The young man behind the incredibly large GTA VI game system leak was sentenced for his crimes at the end of last year. You can learn more about this criminal case here.
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