Warning to gamers after Nottinghamshire player lost £2k when they were hacked

With 60 per cent of UK adults playing video games on console, desktop or smartphone devices, the gaming industry has increasing come under attack from hackers.

Nottinghamshire Police are now encouraging gamers to take steps to make it harder for cyber criminals to access their data, following a rise in reports of online accounts being hacked, with victims losing thousands of pounds as a result – one Nottinghamshire-based gamer lost more than £2,000, while another victim in the East Midlands lost £10,000.

The growing threat has led to Nottinghamshire Police’s cyber protect team urging gamers to follow National Cyber Security Centre advice.

To prevent your gaming account being hijacked, you should:

• Keep your devices and applications up to date. This includes the operating system. This will help prevent these attacks from being successful. Turn on automatic updates and where possible install antivirus software on your device to check for malicious executables and keep it up to date. Ensure community modifications you may have installed are up to date as researchers have found an increase in cyber criminals exploiting outdated community mods to spread malware and hijack servers.
• Use strong passwords and turn on two-step verification. Protect your gaming accounts using a unique long password consisting of three random words. Turn on two-step verification. It offers an extra layer of protection to prevent someone hacking into your account. Police have seen an increase in fake phishing websites impersonating login portals, look out for suspicious links and URLs. Do not follow links sent by other players;
• Protect your privacy online. Do not share personally identifiable information with players you do not trust. Apply privacy settings to ensure personal data is not visible to other players. Hide your friends lists, to avoid scammers from impersonating your friends;
• Use official stores or sources. When purchasing and downloading games, ensure you are using official store fronts to avoid inadvertently downloading malware;
• Do not follow instructions from other players. Cyber attackers often attempt to circumvent in-game security measures by persuading you to do something outside of the game itself. For example, a player you do not know may suggest installing an ‘upgrade’ and supply a link for it. The offer could also come in the form of a well-crafted phishing email, promising some kind of freebie related to a game you enjoy.

Kirsty Jackson, force cyber protect officer, said: “A lot of game distributors will not offer support if you have been using third party services to commence trades and link your accounts, as these falls outside of their terms and conditions.

“It’s important you are cautious when using these services, especially if another player ask you to sign up to them. Genuine online services won’t require you complete a trade to login, or ask you to give your 2SV code to anyone else.”

To see if you have been hacked, check your online accounts to see if there has been any unauthorised activity. Things to look out for include:

• Being unable to log into your accounts;
• Changes to your security settings;
• Messages or notifications sent from your account that you do not recognise;
• Logins or attempted logins from strange locations or at unusual times;
• Unauthorised money transfers or purchases from your online accounts.