In an unsettling twist for gamers, a group of cybercriminals has launched a malware attack specifically aimed at players who use cheats in the popular video game Call of Duty. The attack has resulted in the theft of bitcoin from some gamers, with the total number of affected players rising into the hundreds of thousands. This information comes from @vxunderground, a reliable source on malware activities, who also noted that not all victims were cheaters; some merely used software to improve gaming performance or security.
The malware, an information-stealing type, was first detected by PhantomOverlay, a provider of Call of Duty cheat codes, after its users reported unauthorized transactions. Shortly thereafter, other cheat providers, including Elite PVPers, began to see similar patterns of attack, confirming the widespread nature of the issue. Victims have reported the loss of login details and, in some instances, the draining of their Electrum cryptocurrency wallets. The exact amount of stolen cryptocurrency remains uncertain.
In response to these security breaches, Activision Blizzard, the developer behind Call of Duty, has reportedly started collaborating with the cheat code providers in an effort to support the impacted gamers. The current tally of compromised accounts includes more than 3.6 million Battlenet accounts, 561,000 Activision accounts, and 117,000 Elite PVPers accounts, although PhantomOverlay suggests these figures may be overstated.