Ahead of the premiere of the HBO TV adaptation of The Last of Us this week (January 15), newcomers to the Naughty Dog franchise were warned to stay away from fake websites offering non-existent versions of the game.
In its report, Kaspersky anti-virus provider shared that it expects the HBO adaptation to become a “real boom,” although it warns that viewers who have never heard of the series before and do not know that it is currently exclusive to PlayStation are vulnerable to criminals who offer fake versions of the game for PC.
Kaspersky Lab says it has already discovered a site offering to download The Last of Us Part 2 to a PC — despite the fact that it is exclusive to PlayStation — and actually sells malicious files to players.
The company also announces the existence of a phishing site that offers an “activation code” for The Last of Us, which will not appear on the PC until March 3 of this year. It is reported that users of the site are invited to choose a “gift” with the game — from PS5 to a Roblox gift card — along with their bank details, which then fall into the hands of criminals.
“Instead of offering preliminary access to the series, cybercriminals have taken a different path and are distributing malicious files under the guise of a game,” commented Olga Svistunova, a web content analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “This shows that gamers, especially new ones who don’t know enough about cybersecurity while playing, are one of the main target audiences of cybercriminals, and they will come up with more and more ways to use them.”
To avoid fraud, Svistunova recommends that customers “check whether the cherished game is available on the proposed platform, download games only from official app stores and do not forget to use a reliable security solution.”
As for the TV show, we awarded The Last Of Us four stars out of five in our review, calling it “an apocalyptically good video game port.”
As for other gaming news, the CPR touchdown celebration featured in Madden NFL 23 will be removed after American football star Damar Hamlin’s heart stopped in the middle of the game.
