(Credit: Valve)
The FBI is investigating new malware threats circulating via PC games on Steam.
The agency's Seattle division issued an alert and asked potential victims to contact the office. "If you and/or your minor dependent(s) were victimized from installing one of these games or have information relevant to this investigation, please fill out this short form," it says.
A hacker mainly targeted Steam users between May 2024 and January 2026. “In the investigation, several games have been identified to include BlockBlasters, Chemia, Dashverse / DashFPS, Lampy, Lunara, PirateFi, and Tokenova,” the FBI says.
The listed games were previously found to contain malware. In February 2025, the free-to-play PirateFi launched in beta but was actually designed to steal browser cookies and hijack user accounts. In July 2025, a cybersecurity vendor flagged an upcoming game, Chemia, for updating itself to deliver malware. Then, in September, BlockBlasters was released on Steam, but it was actually a Trojan that drained an estimated $150,000 in cryptocurrency from victims.
The FBI’s alert also appears to warn about a new title, Lampy, that was previously unknown to host malware. The free-to-play game is currently available on Steam. But it’s not clear if the FBI alert meant to flag this game or a title with a similar name that's already been removed.
In the past, Steam’s parent, Valve —which is based in Bellevue, Washington— has been spotted warned users who downloaded the affected games about the malware threat, including DashFPS. On forums, gamers also sounded the alarm about Lunara and Tokenova.
In a statement, Valve told PCMag: "We previously sent email notifications to players who launched certain games on Steam, when we discovered that builds of those games likely contained malware. We removed those builds from Steam, investigated the incidents, and cooperated with law enforcement. Yesterday, we forwarded to affected customers a message from the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the investigation."
The FBI’s alert suggests it suspects the malware threats are tied to a single group or attacker. All the games are indie titles that most, if not all, PC users wouldn’t be aware of. So to entice users to download the games, victims have reported receiving messages on the messaging app Telegram with a free key to try out the titles, or even freelance job offers to help moderate the game. The BlockBlasters title was also promoted, with the attacker apparently messaging cryptocurrency holders to try it as a paid promotion.