Grand Theft Auto V PC Scam Infects Computers With Malware

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Grand Theft Auto V PC Scam Infects Computers With Malware


Cybersecurity company Trend Micro says unscrupulous dudes are using the promise of a Grand Theft Auto V PC beta test to infect computers with malware.

"There is no Grand Theft Auto V for PC." Say this to yourself three times and keep it in mind when you receive an email offering an invitation to the beta test. It's not real, and in fact, according to Trend Micro, the links included in the emails lead to several sites that will bring you nothing but woe.

"You invited Beta tester GTA V to Windows," an image of an email sent out as part of the spam campaign states. "Registered this link with promotion code... By creating an account you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy." The links, written in Slovak (which may explain the preceding Engrish text) lead to several sites, one of which is a phishing site; there's also an attached .ZIP file containing an application that purports to be an access code but which is actually a known backdoor trojan.

The email is so clunky and mangled that you might think it would be easy to pick it out as a scam, but not everyone pays as much attention to things as they should before clicking on them, and as Trend Micro noted, a lot of people are very anxious to get GTA5 on PC.

"In the past, we have reported several spam attacks that banked on the success and popularity of online games in order to proliferate malware. Games like World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto IV were also leveraged before by spammers," it wrote in its Threat Encyclopedia [http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/us/spam/3510/Grand+Theft+Auto+V+Release+Stirs+Spam]. "Clearly, the worldwide success of these games makes it a good social engineering lure to trick users. In this specific case, spammers capitalized on the much-anticipated release date of Grand Theft Auto V on PC, XboxOne, and PS4."

So keep your eyes open for this one, and if you get it - don't click it!

Source: Trend Micro [http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/grand-theft-auto-v-pc-beta-test-lures-victims/]


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Vie

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Nov 18, 2009
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I'm amazed anybody fell for this one, given how little beta testing Rockstar appeared to have done on the GTA IV PC release.

Though admittedly EFLC was a lot better on that front.
 

Tactical Pause

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Jan 6, 2010
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Again with this sort of thing? This one looks about as convincing as your average plea for help from a Nigerian prince.

Honestly, who actually falls for this stuff?
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
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Didn't, like, this exact thing happen before?

If I saw a beta test for GTAV PC, my very first instinct is to Google it. Why is this not everyone else's first instinct?
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
Legacy
Dec 11, 2012
2,384
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This again?
Tactical Pause said:
Again with this sort of thing? This one looks about as convincing as your average plea for help from a Nigerian prince.

Honestly, who actually falls for this stuff?
Enough people for it to be worth the scammer's while.

Scammers wouldn't put the time and effort into these scams, if they didn't produce a result.
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

(Insert witty quote here)
Sep 10, 2008
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IceForce said:
This again?
Tactical Pause said:
Again with this sort of thing? This one looks about as convincing as your average plea for help from a Nigerian prince.

Honestly, who actually falls for this stuff?
Enough people for it to be worth the scammer's while.

Scammers wouldn't put the time and effort into these scams, if they didn't produce a result.
Or they simply throw a shitload of darts hoping that one or two will stick, if they actually hit the dartboard is a bonus.
 

Arawn

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Dec 18, 2003
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It would seem that old people and gamers are a gullible lot. Scary how far people will go. But when it comes to Beta tests I go to the company's site. But I don't apply for many anyway.
 

List

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Sep 29, 2013
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It's the year 2014 and people are still falling for this?
In an age where everyone should have heard of this trick/scam.... really?
How can people be so easily scammed... I guess this targets children? I just don't know...
 

Frezzato

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Oct 17, 2012
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Which mail client is that screenshot from? Is that Outlook? I haven't used that in a while, for which I am thankful.
 

Metalrocks

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Jan 15, 2009
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good thing i gave up on this series since SA.
but these people are stupid for falling for that. they deserved it.
 

CBanana

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Aug 10, 2010
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NuclearKangaroo said:
Rockstar i blame you directly for this, will you release a freakin' port already?
Rockstar is just waiting for Half Life 3 to be released so they can give it a wide berth and have a much less divided PC audience. Who can fault them for that logic?
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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If someone actually falls for this, they deserve it. Literally everything about it screams "IT'S A SCAM!" This kind of scam is as old as e-mails. I get "your account is lockdown notify" e-mails on a weekly basis. I sometimes go through my spam folder just for kicks. Speaking of which... For some reason, I'm getting a lot of spam in Chinese lately, and I've no idea why.
 

DarkhoIlow

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Dec 31, 2009
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Why on earth would people fall for this? There shouldn't even be a beta for this game in the first place..that's called the console version, since it was released already and patched. Those are your "beta testers" right there.

The game is probably already finished and polished for the PC and they don't want to release it yet, God knows why.
 

softclocks

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Mar 7, 2014
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Who would fall for this? Maybe 1 in 1000? It doesn't take a lot of people for them to get their money's worth I think.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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FizzyIzze said:
Which mail client is that screenshot from? Is that Outlook? I haven't used that in a while, for which I am thankful.
Looks like a very old (circa 2003?) version of outlook.

NuclearKangaroo said:
Rockstar i blame you directly for this, will you release a freakin' port already?
actually, according to Amazon support staff its due in May. How much that source is to be trusted is up to anyones guess.
 

heroicbob

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Aug 25, 2010
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if people will fall for a fake half life countdown on a russian website they will fall for this

honestly they probably didnt even read the email they just see the subject line and the attachment that reads promo code you can say that no one falls for this but people got hit with malware after trying to pirate the game when it wasn't even released for pc yet