Newshot Beware scams posing as the PC version of GTA 6: can steal Steam accounts and crypto wallet data
IT之家 November 14 news: according to a report by foreign media Neowin this afternoon (14th), cybersecurity company Cynet found that someone had posted a fake "GTA 6 EXE file download" link in a Google Colab notebook.
Cynet did not explain how researchers initially discovered the notebook. The investigation found that the link pointed to a webpage named "Windows Software Hub", whose URL contained the word WooCommerce.
To gain users' trust, the download page not only displayed the software version number and download count, but also put labels such as "virus-free", "safe", and "verified", and even claimed that no security threats had been detected.
However, the download file indicated on the webpage was only 72MB, and the archive actually downloaded was even more suspicious. It contained only a 796KB EXE executable and a 1KB README document. The document asked users to run the EXE file as administrator, ignore system security warnings, and, if blocked by antivirus software, add the file to the exclusion list.
Once done, the computer would be infected with an information-stealing trojan. The malware can bypass sandbox and virtual machine detection, inject malicious code into browser processes, and steal passwords, Steam and Roblox account login credentials, cookies, browsing history, sensitive information in browser extensions, and cryptocurrency wallet data. Not only that, the trojan can also tamper with cryptocurrency addresses copied by users and download more malware.
IT之家 reminds: GTA 6 has not yet released a PC version.
The game is scheduled for release on November 19, and the first-launch platforms are only PS5, XBOX Series X, and XBOX Series S. Therefore, at this stage, any content claiming to offer a Windows or macOS version of GTA 6 is highly likely to be a scam.
Cynet concluded: "No matter whose next blockbuster game it is—Rockstar, Bethesda, or Blizzard—it will set off another wave of hype, and attackers will once again exploit players' curiosity to lure them into clicking links. Security protection cannot rely on users to see through all convincing scams, nor can it rely only on a security analyst who happens to take leave on the game's launch day."
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