Fortnite is a popular video game that just released its 6th season on September 27. This, unfortunately, has given rise to an increase of malware, disguised as game cheating tools, with the purpose being to stealing your malware.

Lead malware intelligence analyst Christopher Boyd, also known by his online pseudonym ‘Paperghost’, is a computer security researcher. Chris says that malware within cheat tools that can steal bitcoin and data from Fortnite gamers, has been discovered by Malwarebytes Labs. Some YouTube video’s proposing ‘free’ downloads of the game for Android users, and offers of ‘free’ season passes were found to be embedded with malware.

Scamming is a Process

Locating the malware was not a simple task, and comprised of numerous steps that included completing a subscription to a YouTube channel, being taken to another site and then being required to take a survey before downloading the malware.

Three examples of videos found were titled: “New Season 6 Fortnite Hack Cheat Free Download September 2018 / WH / Aimbot/ Undetectable”, “Fortnite Hack Free Download,” and “Fortnite Cheat.”

One particular video has already received 120892 views before being taken down due to YouTube scam policy violations. Boyd observed that the act of disguising malware as a cheat tool is an old trick, but one that can do extensive damage.

Don’t be fooled, your data is not safe

Upon the running of the initial .exe file on the computer system, it tallies details of the computer now affected by the malware. Data is then transmitted by a POST command to a file in the Russian Federation. Extreme amounts of data can be stolen in this way, as malware combs through cookies, Steam sessions, browser session information, and bitcoin wallets.

Boyd offers his advice to anyone wanting to cheat at Fortnite, that they best steer well clear of the numerous available on the web.

Boyd wrote: “Offering up a malicious file under the pretense of a cheat is as old school as it gets, but that’s never stopped cybercriminals before. In this scenario, would-be cheaters suffer a taste of their own medicine via a daisy chain of click-throughs and some malware as a parting gift. Winning is great, but it’s absolutely not worth risking a huge slice of personal information to get the job done.”

Electrum, a popular bitcoin wallet service, has found evidence for the existence of another bitcoin stealing scam, a copycat client called ‘Electrum Pro’. It functions under the domain name ‘electrum.com and diverts individuals away from the official site electrum.org.

Many scamming schemes exist out there, waiting to steal your data and coins. Don’t be fooled. Know the signs. Have you ever been scammed or know anyone who has been scammed, comment with your answer below!

Follow CoinBeat on Facebook, Twitter & Telegram

Subscribe to our CoinBeat Newsletter

Submit an article to CoinBeat

View live Marketcap Prices here