A harmful game called PirateFi appeared on Steam for about a week but ended up causing some users malware infections. Unfortunately, there were users who played that may have gotten malware.
Steam took down this free beta game once reports about hacked accounts came in, but by then, days had already gone by. Valve reached out to the affected users, advising them to run a full scan with antivirus software and even suggested reinstalling their operating system to make sure any remaining malware was completely removed.
The malware found in PirateFi was stealing browser cookies, which allowed it to access various online accounts associated with those cookies. Users who were affected reported that their Microsoft accounts were compromised, money was stolen from platforms like Roblox, and scam links were sent to their contacts.
One user’s antivirus software detected the game as having “Trojan.Win32.Lazzzy.gen” before it launched. Any program with Trojan in its name should never be trusted. It seems the malware installed itself in the /AppData/Temp/ folder and showed up as Howard.exe. Another reviewer stated that their accounts were hacked after downloading the game.
Steam reviews every game that goes into its platform, but the wait tends to be short. This situation highlights worries about how well Steam reviews games. Although Steam has a system to check games and updates before they’re released, the discovery of malware in PirateFi shows that there might be some weaknesses in this system. According to SteamDB, more than 800 users have been impacted. Additionally, the game’s listing on Steam apparently included screenshots taken from another game called Easy Survival RPG, and the game’s main artwork certainly looks like it was made with generative AI tools.
One interesting aspect of this issue is the amount of positive reviews the game has. Plenty of reviews point out that the game is a scam, but more positive reviews talk about how great the game is. Those reviews are also rated as helpful, which shows how often bot reviews support each other’s reviews.
Overall, this is a great reminder to scan free games or downloads before launching them. Valve responded by removing the game and informing users, but that doesn’t guarantee this situation won’t happen again.
Source: SteamDB/Bluesky, PC Mag
