Belgium trick + VPN still work - with caveats

TL;DR: Belgium trick Post 2023-03 still at least have an appearance of working, but will require the following (This apply to both EA App and Origin):

  1. Need VPN. Still need to set your account region to Belgium. Still need ORIGIN/EA APP
  2. SIGN OUT of ORIGIN/EA APP COMPLETELY
  3. ACTIVATE VPN to Belgium
  4. Sign in to ORIGIN/EA APP
  5. It may or may not matter if you deactivate VPN after you sign in to ORIGIN/EA APP (appearance wise). I do not want to risk it, so I kept the VPN on while making the purchase
  6. Split-tunneling, available for some VPN, doesn't work.
  7. CAUTION: It may damage your ability to dispute false login/false ban due to your successful login marks the ip from Belgium. At worst, it may even lock you out, simply due to irregular ip.

Preclude: Upon hearing about how Belgium trick no longer works, I fired up my VPN, connect to Belgium, and test it, and do notice the lootbox stayed lootbox. However, real Belgians claim they see materials

Hypothesis: Since ORIGIN/EA App login record where you are from (IE: "Your EA data", which you use to prove you didn't hack), I guess that it now read your login from ORIGIN/EA App.

Experiments:

  1. (control): Origin login; then activate VPN; then start up Apex. RESULT: BP track show lootbox
  2. closed Origin; activate VPN; start and login Origin; start up Apex. Result: BP track shows materials
  3. *closed Origin; activate VPN; start and login Origin; deactivate VPN; start up Apex. Result: BP track shows material. Benefit is that I am still connect to my usual server and thus maintain highspeed.
  4. closed Origin; In VPN, activate split tunnel. Placed some exe within origin folder (I started with Origin.exe) in the list. activate VPN; start up Apex. Result: "Failed to allocate a network port" error
  5. closed Origin; In VPN, activate split tunnel. Placed some exe within origin folder (I started with Origin.exe) in the list. Placed EAC and Apex into the list. activate VPN; start up Apex. Result: "Failed to allocate a network port" error

Reason to test point 4 and 5 is hopefully make it simple to spoof as Belgium, without degrading play performance

My guess: when you login in Origin, you generate a token/record that indicate where you from, which is what "Your EA Data" Json record. Thus, since Apex itself doesn't work, and settign the EA store doesn't work, it implies they can use it as a tool to determine where you actually are

Obviously, per point 4 and point 5, it involve a lot of other process, so when using split tunneling, computer possibly get confused... or due to NAT (which translate your private address and port to public address by mapping your various ports to your E-addr:port), and thus cannot just play Apex despite login from "belgium"

Caution: The flipside means that you may have a harder time to prove you are being hacked; after all, you sometimes login from Belgium. Also, I am not sure if my little experiment trigger their dumb AI (ie: "why is this account suddenly login from Belgium? Must have been hacked") and just lock you out (think Google - they will quesiton you if your login is not where you usally are), SO BE CAREFUL.

Second test run (so I get my S16 battlepass)

  • From Steam:
    • current material: 4865
    • Possible material from purchase: 1200
    • Lootbox: 32
  • From EA App, no VPN:
    • current material: 4865
    • Possible material from purchase: 1200
    • Lootbox: 32

VPN test:

  • From EA App, with VPN (EA login before VPN), pre purchase
    • current material: 4865
    • Possible material from purchase: 1200
    • Lootbox: 32
  • From Steam (Steam login AFTER VPN):
    • current material: 4865
    • Possible material from purchase: 1200
    • Lootbox: 32
  • From EA App, with VPN (EA login AFTER VPN), pre purchase
    • current material: 4865
    • Possible material from purchase: 2550
    • Lootbox: 32

In above state, made purchase in EA App

  • From EA App, with VPN (EA login AFTER VPN), POST purchase
    • current material: 7415
    • Difference: 7415-4865=2550 <- match the theory
    • Lootbox: 32

Quit VPN completely (after above), but did not quit EA app,

  • From EA App, above, POST purchase
    • current material: 7415
    • Battle Pass track: still shows I got material
    • Lootbox: 32
  • From Steam, POST purchase
    • current material: 7415
    • Battle Pass track: still shows I got "loot box"
  • Lootbox: 32

Restart computer to clear everything

  • From EA App, POST Restart, POST purchase
    • current material: 7415
    • Battle Pass track: still shows I got "loot box"
    • Lootbox: 32
  • From Steam, POST Restart, POST purchase
    • current material: 7415
    • Battle Pass track: still shows I got "loot box"
    • Lootbox: 32