A. Verdin (name redacted for privacy) isn't the only person who has allegedly scammed review keys from video game PR representatives and developers, but he's one of the few who got caught.
Verdin – AKA "BattlefieldAxe," "Airo95," "RaphaAaron," and "James Rodriguez" – has a reputation among publishers and PR reps for running game key scams; a con where the scammer falsifies some manner of credential in order to score free download keys for video games, often indie titles. In Verdin's case, he's almost certainly impersonated a member of Twitter's verification team and the PlayStation UK team, as well as allegedly impersonated representatives from EA, Square Enix, Bethesda, and Friday the 13th developer Gun Media. Although it's unclear how falsifying Twitter credentials figured into his alleged scam, Verdin reportedly obtained "about 50 keys" for the Friday the 13th: The Game beta as well as multiple Battlefield beta keys.
Since then, he's allegedly posted a since-deleted apology on Twitter, where he offered to reimburse the companies he's scammed via PayPal. This was approximately seven months ago, back in October 2016 – based on this screenshot. Although most of the screenshots we've obtained have been from second-hand sources, we've been able to conclusively verify that Verdin's current Twitter account once went by the handles accused of key scamming. The only thing we've been unable to confirm is whether Verdin ever apologized.
Two months after the apology, Verdin allegedly went back to his old ways by implying he was a member of the Friday the 13th: The Game development team on Twitter. Verdin initially responded to request for comment, but went silent after asking me what my plans were for the article.
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