Avoid Steam Games Scam Sites

PC World — Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC games, does away with the need to keep old installation cd's around. I've used it for a few games myself. But as Christopher Boyd at the SpywareGuide blog points out, if someone lifts your username and password, it's the equivalent of someone walking off with all your game cd's.

Boyd describes a couple of scams that attempt to do just that. The first scam uses a site that looks much like the regular steam site, and uses the lure of a free gift pack of games to draw you into entering your username and password. A classic phishing scam, with some pretty good-sounding bait on the hook.

The second, related scam uses another classic phishing tactic, and this time attempts to scare visitors into believing their account must be verified or be permanently disabled. According to Boyd, the scams are being hyped on YouTube (and also getting a heartening batch of scathing responses).

Games have been a popular target for digital thieves for some time. There's real value, as thieves can make quick money by selling stolen online currency from some games, or stolen accounts chock-full of downloadable games. And it's low risk, because you don't have the same kind of security in place to protect games as for a credit card account, for instance. So if you're a gamer, it's a good idea to be just as careful with your game account logins as your banking credentials. They're just as much of a target.