Scams and Hacking in Gaming: Why Hackers Target Gaming Platforms

Gaming is a global phenomenon that people of all ages and walks of life enjoy. However, the broad appeal also attracts the worst of us: hackers and scammers who won’t think twice about stealing Timmy’s Minecraft account or his parents’ credit card info.

Why are games and gaming platforms popular hacking targets? What tricks do attackers use, and what should you do to stop them? Here’s everything you need to know. 

A Dangerous Playground

Gaming platforms like Steam and Epic attract legions of gamers, many of whom are younger than the minimum age requirement of 13 to create an account. According to the latest stats, Steam alone has more than 132 million users, and half of them log in daily.

Younger players also gravitate more towards online games like Fortnite and Roblox, which regularly release paid content and cosmetics. While the core gameplay is free, users who want in-game items—along with associated bragging rights—need to link their gaming accounts to credit cards or online payment platforms.

How do Hackers Exploit Gamers?

Hackers prefer the easiest targets. In the context of gaming, those are children and gullible, less tech-savvy individuals. There are lots of ways to trick them. Yet, the goal is always to either get the victims to reveal their account information or part with their valuable in-game items.

Phishing is a common example. Hackers use publicly available addresses to send emails that claim to be from a gaming platform or game developer. They urgently ask recipients to log into their accounts to make changes or claim a prize, providing a link that leads to a fake website instead.

Entered credentials are saved and used to hack the account. From there, the attackers can transfer or sell off anything valuable they find. Worse yet, they may get access to sensitive personal information like real names, billing addresses, or credit card numbers.

In-game social engineering is also a concern. Scammers spend some time playing with and getting to know the victim, and then they offer to trade for items or ask for account details outright. Once their scheme works, the scammers block the victim or lock them out of their account.

Some competitive gamers have no qualms about cheating, and there’s a whole cottage industry providing tools to that end. All are unethical, many don’t work, and some are nothing more than malware in disguise. Gamers who install such tools risk ransomware lockdowns, getting their data stolen, and more.

How to Keep Your Gaming Accounts Safe?

Knowledge is the best weapon against hackers and scammers. Keep track of the latest threats targeting the game you or your kids play. Learn how to recognize phishing emails, and teach your children to communicate safely with in-game friends and keep real-life information to themselves.

Accounts also need effective protection in the form of unique passwords and two-factor authentication. A password manager can help with both and makes creating one-of-a-kind login credentials for each account easy. Not only does that make passwords impossible to hack since they’re long and complex, but it protects other accounts that would have shared passwords otherwise if one is compromised.

In addition, you can get the same password manager on Android, iOS, or other mobile operating systems. This way, you can sync your passwords across multiple devices—ensuring that you access your passwords quickly and securely, no matter which device you are using. Further, you eliminate the need to manually transfer credentials and reduce the risk of forgetting or losing important login information.

Never visit suspicious websites that promise game prices too good to be true or ask for personal information in exchange for in-game rewards. Cheating in online games defeats the purpose of play and can get your account banned, so it’s best not to bother. Mods are a legitimate way to put a twist on a game and reignite your love for it. However, make sure they have lots of positive user reviews and are available from legitimate sources.