The Last of Us is about to premiere on HBO Max. The hype is sky high and the Naughty Dog franchise will surely open the doors to a lot of fans very soon. This is cause for celebration, but also for concern, as experts warn that fans of The Last of Us could be easy prey for cyberattacks.
Kaspersky, one of the world’s leading cybersecurity companies, issued a statement warning about the dangers that fans of The Last of Us may experience on the Internet in the coming days. As the company explained, these are people who are at risk of falling for scams or receiving malware that steals their money or bank details.
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But what the heck is Kaspersky referring to? The company discovered that cybercriminals want to abuse ignorance by offering supposed downloads of The Last of Us for PC, a game that will be released until March. There are also those who offer downloads of The Last of Us: Part II, a game whose PC port has not even been announced.
A very clear scam
Thus, the objective of cybercriminals is to take advantage of the fact that there are people who do not know that The Last of Us has not yet arrived on PC and thus rob them. Some of the scams are malware downloads, while others are phishing schemes offering activation codes and prizes to steal bank details.
“The Last of Us will be a real boom at the beginning of this year, considering how long millions of fans have been waiting for the series. Interestingly, now, instead of offering early access to the series, cybercriminals have chosen a path different and are distributing malicious files pretending to be a video game,” says Olga Svistunova, a security expert at Kaspersky.
“This shows that gamers, especially new ones, who don’t yet know enough about cybersecurity when it comes to gaming, are among the main target audience for criminals, who will come up with more ways to exploit them. Stay vigilant and check if your long-awaited game is available on the offered platform, download games only from official app stores and don’t forget to use a trusted security solution,” he concluded.
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How to avoid a The Last of Us scam?
Now, how can you avoid falling for one of these scams? It is enough to have a little common sense and follow the following steps:
Avoid sites that promise products before their release or for free. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Buy only in official stores and sites like Steam, Epic Games Store or HBO Max. Check the authenticity of the website before entering personal data Pay attention to the extensions of the files you download Use a security tool
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What do you think about this new? Have you come across any of these scams? Tell us in the comments.
The Last of Us is coming to HBO on January 15. You can learn more about this production if you click here. On the other hand, in this link you will find all our coverage of the world of video games.
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