Gamer Account Scam

Beware that gamer who contacts you online, they might not be who they claim to be.

Who Is It Targeting: Online gamers

What Is It: Spoofed account scam

What Are They After: In the world of online gaming, it’s quite common to reach out to others who play the game in order to team up, communicate, or swap knowledge and gear. One increasingly common practice is to actually “swap” accounts; this lets you play at a higher level if the other player is more advanced. Even more alarming are offers on message boards to swap accounts for a fee: this lets you advance past a certain point in the game by paying a more skilled user to log into your account and play through the levels.

Unfortunately, there have already been reports of people paying the fee only to find that the accounts they’ve swapped for are bogus. Worse than that, the other player now has access to their legitimate account, and can steal information or even take over the entire account.

How Can You Avoid It:

• Remember to treat people you meet online as strangers, no matter how long you think you’ve “known” them.
• Never give anyone your username and password to any of your accounts.
• Play, don’t pay… keep the game honest and avoid having your account shut down for violating the terms and conditions.

If you think you may be a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for toll-free, no-cost assistance at (888) 400-5530. Find more information about current scams and alerts here. For full details of this scam check out this article from WJLA.com.