Thousands of gamers have been duped by a fake version of the Grand Theft Auto distributed on torrent sites.
The download appeared to be a leaked PC version of GTA V, but was in fact vicious malware.
WCCFTech reported: ‘Site metrics and Seed Ratio reveal that this particular torrent has been downloaded well into the thousands. The setup file is a realistic 18GB and has an actual setup.exe file, one that works. Basically a malicious replica of the original setup file, this one doesn’t give out any hint of malicious activity.’
Rockstar games is yet to announce a PC version of the record-breaking title, hinting that this leaked version was most likely not a genuine edition.
Other warnings to those downloading the counterfeit version were the launch of a setup.exe file to move through the installation process and being required to enter personal information in the form of surveys to acquire a .txt file containing a key. This key would supposedly verify the user as having acquired the file through legitimate means and would provide unlocked gameplay once entered.
By downloading these files and entering details, users would find their PCs infected with almost two and a half times as much data included on the original GT Xbox 360 disc.
The PC conversion will reportedly be delivered around spring 2014, but perhaps sooner due to the high demand for a computer-run version of the game. An online survey requesting a PC version now has over 600,000 signatures.
With such high demand for the controversial game, it is no surprise that hackers and spammers are exploiting the demand.
