U.S. prosecutors have accused a Florida man of uploading fake video games that contained malware to Steam, the popular PC games platform. Once victims downloaded and installed the games, the malware was designed to infect their computers, steal their passwords and other data, and drain their crypto wallets, according to a criminal complaint.
On Tuesday, the FBI arrested Zyaire Wilkins, a 21-year-old Florida resident and student. On Wednesday, prosecutors accused him and a number of unnamed co-conspirators of hacking crimes. Over the past two years, Wilkins and his partners allegedly published several malware-laden video games on Steam, including BlockBlasters, Dashverse, Lampy, Lunara, and PirateFi. Using that malware, says the FBI, Wilkins and his accomplices infected around 8,000 victims, and then hacked around 80 cryptocurrency wallets to steal at least $220,000 worth of crypto.
Wilkins and the others marketed their malicious video games on Discord, LinkedIn, and Telegram, according to the authorities.
Wilkins’ lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
In March, the FBI announced that it was investigating a hacker suspected of using malware-embedded video games published on Steam to hack victims. In the announcement, the bureau called for people who downloaded the malicious games, which included those named in this week’s complaint, to come forward and provide evidence to aid the investigation.
