{"id":444379,"date":"2025-09-22T23:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T23:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/444379\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T23:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T23:39:10","slug":"steam-game-removed-after-cryptostealer-takes-over-150k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/444379\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam game removed after cryptostealer takes over $150K"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Steam has taken down a game containing malware that drained the cryptocurrency wallets belonging to hundreds of players, as reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/verified-steam-game-steals-streamers-cancer-treatment-donations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">earlier by Bleeping Computer<\/a>. The free-to-play 2D platformer, titled BlockBlasters, took <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/zachxbt\/status\/1969793042531107300\">more than $150,000<\/a> from victims, including $32,000 from a streamer raising funds for their cancer treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">In a post on X, malware tracker vx-underground revealed that bad actors targeted some streamers with a spearphishing campaign that attempted to lure victims into <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vxunderground\/status\/1970036781765800212\">promoting the game<\/a> in exchange for compensation. \u201cUnfortunately, the Steam game was actually a cryptodrainer masquerading as a legitimate video game,\u201d vx-underground wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">As noted by Bleeping Computer, BlockBlasters first appeared on Steam on July 30th, but the game quietly added a cryptodrainer on August 30th. It was published by developer Genesis Interactive and garnered more than 200 \u201cvery positive\u201d reviews. The malicious title mostly flew under the radar until Latvian streamer Raivo Plavnieks (Rastaland.TV), who has stage 4 cancer, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rastalandTV\/status\/1969629808788181258\">said that they lost $32,000<\/a> after downloading BlockBlasters over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Steam has removed a flurry of games that have infected Windows computers with malware, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/news\/did-you-download-this-steam-game-sorry-its-windows-malware\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">including PirateFi<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/steam-pulls-game-demo-infecting-windows-with-info-stealing-malware\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sniper: Phantom\u2019s Resolution<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=1025X1701640&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.malwarebytes.com%2Fblog%2Fnews%2F2025%2F07%2Fsteam-games-abused-to-deliver-malware-once-again\" rel=\"sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chemia<\/a>. Steam removed BlockBlasters on September 21st. The Verge reached out to Valve with a request for comment, but didn\u2019t immediately hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steam has taken down a game containing malware that drained the cryptocurrency wallets belonging to hundreds of players,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1583,12,3282,811,326,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-444379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pc-gaming","11":"tag-security","12":"tag-tech","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115250591460075490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}