A player complains on Steam that he is receiving strange emails because he sells stuff on the platform. He already suspects the worst, and the community confirms: His account has been hacked.
What is the problem of the player? A player reached out to the community on Reddit explaining that his Steam account is doing weird things: His account is creating listings on the community market and selling items.
He himself asks, slightly surprised, on Reddit:
Was I hacked? I have never created a listing on Steam in my life. Suddenly, I receive a bunch of emails saying that I’ve sold stuff.
Cheats and hacks are often gateways for fraudsters
How was the player hacked? It is not clear how exactly the user got the malware. Some users speculate that he downloaded a “Fortnite hack” from GitHub. Someone asks:
That’s a pretty good sign [for a hack]. Have you tried any Fortnite hacks from GitHub recently?
These would typically not work, but would effectively contaminate his PC with malware and harvest his data. That would then be his own bad luck, some players explain amusedly. Whether the user Camelgamer
is really a cheater is not known. The affected gamer adds that he does not use Steam very often and has also not used the market so far. Therefore, he does not really care about the trading cards, just that there might be malware on his computer:
I don’t use Steam often and have no idea how the Steam market works. I wanted to make sure it’s a hack or that items are automatically listed for sale when they just sit there collecting dust. I don’t care about the trading cards; I just worry about what the malware could do.
Can one protect against this? Yes, Steam already offers some security features. The 2-factor authentication is strongly recommended by Steam. Valve believes it’s so safe that Steam boss Newell revealed his login credentials to show how well it works. Some players also point out that 2FA should be mandatory for all online services. Someone says:
Honestly, I don’t understand how we’re in 2024 and 2FA/MFA isn’t a requirement for every type of online account or at least enabled by default. Passwords are not nearly as secure as the general public thinks. There are thousands, if not more, publicly available databases with legitimate passwords all over the web. (…) 2FA and MFA are essential.
Hackers are targeting fraudsters: The scheme of supplying cheaters and fraudsters with malware is known. Viruses have been deliberately distributed to hackers in Call of Duty. The willing fraudsters then unknowingly and voluntarily install the viruses on their machines because they hope to cheat with the software.
Other players have little to no sympathy towards those who cheat. Many explain that in the end, justice prevails when fraudsters are infected with viruses.
Just recently, a cheat manufacturer received a wake-up call. One of the biggest providers, “AimJunkies,” was sued by Bungie, the studio behind the Destiny series, and tried to fight against a million-dollar judgment. However, the cheat provider has now failed: Bungie wins in court against cheat manufacturers – receives as much money as if they had sold Destiny 2 79,621 times
