The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is currently trying to track down gamers who may have been targeted by hackers using the Steam platform. The FBI’s Seattle Division has gone public with the investigation after discovering that several Steam games hosted on the site between May 2024 and January 2026 were carrying hidden software. These programs were designed to quietly scrape personal data from web browsers and empty cryptocurrency wallets once installed
The Games Involved
It is worth noting that some of these games appeared safe when they first launched, but a sneaky update later added the harmful code. The FBI has officially identified the following games as part of the threat:
- Lampy
- Lunara
- PirateFi
- Chemia
- Tokenova
- BlockBlasters
- Dashverse (also known as DashFPS)
While these weren’t exactly household names, the financial damage was massive for those who played them. In one case, a streamer lost $32,000 during a live charity broadcast. Reportedly, the total community losses from just one of these games, BlockBlasters, could be as high as $150,000.
How the Scam Spread and What to Do Now
The hackers didn’t just wait for people to find them on the Steam store. They were active on Discord and Telegram, basically grooming players by recommending the games in chat groups. The scam often didn’t end with the download; once the game was on a victim’s computer, the scammers would sometimes follow up to ask for verification codes to get even deeper into the victim’s accounts.
While Steam has already removed these titles, the FBI is still searching for anyone who downloaded them to help build their case. They have released a voluntary form for victims to fill out, asking for details like Steam usernames and the dates the games were played. This is a standard part of the FBI’s legal duty to identify victims of federal crimes and offer support or restitution where possible.
In a comment shared exclusively with hackread.com, Kevin Kirkwood, CISO at Exabeam, gave some perspective on why gamers are such an easy target:
“It only makes sense that bad actors would drop malware inside of games. Folks who are looking at games aren’t necessarily thinking about the downstream ramifications of loading something that is ‘Free!’ when it could install something that exposes the system. Kids, sometimes at a very early age, are playing games over the internet from their parents’ computer, or on the same network as the rest of the computers in the house. The kid sees “free game” and equates it to fun and not risk. The bad actors see “free game” any time someone downloads the app.”
Downloading games through Steam is generally safer than using anonymous file-sharing sites or unofficial third-party download platforms. Steam operates within a regulated infrastructure and can remove malicious titles, investigate abuse, and cooperate with law enforcement when criminal activity occurs.
In contrast, many third-party download sites have little oversight, and some even profit from distributing bundled malware or adware, giving them little incentive to address security risks.
(Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash)
