(Credit: Steam)
UPDATE 2/13: PirateFi game was also circulated on the messaging app Telegram, according to a reader, who said: "Somebody in the channel that I was in sent a message that they had a in-game chat moderator vacancy that would pay 17$ an hour."
The job offer was placed in a Telegram channel that US users frequented. The reader thought the offer was too good to be true, so they investigated and uncovered evidence that a bot was actually running the Telegram account. "I've noticed that the speed of his replies were very consistent, almost always 21 seconds," the reader added. "I was messaging with an AI that was trying to get people to download the game on their devices to infect their computers."
(Credit: Telegram)Original story:
A hacker published a PC game on Steam to infect users with Windows-based malware.
The free-to-play game, PirateFi, was released on Thursday. Days later, Valve was spotted sending out a message to affected users, warning them about the threat to their computers.
“We strongly encourage you to run a full-system scan using an antivirus product that you trust or use regularly, and inspect your system for unexpected or newly installed software,” Steam said.
PirateFi was published as a beta. However, according to Steam forum posts, one user noticed something was off when their antivirus software prevented them from running the game, flagging it as carrying "Trojan.Win32.Lazzzy.gen."
"The essence of the virus: When you launch the ‘game,’ the virus unpacks into /AppData/Temp/****/ and looks like Howard.exe," the user wrote in Rusian. The malware then appears to steal browser cookies, enabling the malware’s creator to hijack access to various online accounts.
Another gamer who downloaded the title wrote on Tuesday: “Most of my stuff has either been hacked and passwords changed or being signed in using cookies that've been stolen!”
“Yah my Microsoft account got stolen from this trojan,” reported a separate user. “They blocked Microsoft support from my emails and swiped it. Went in my Roblox and stole $20 and messaged all my friends scam links while taking all my Steam points to buy awards for bot accounts.”
Another user noticed PirateFi’s listing on Steam seems to take copied screenshots from another game called Easy Survival RPG.
Valve didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, so it’s unclear how the malicious game ended up on the Steam store. However, the company’s message urges users to reinstall their Windows OS to ensure the infection is fully removed. According to SteamDB’s estimate, the game may have circulated to over 800 users.