Where every single business sector experienced a major setback during the pandemic, the gaming industry seemed to thrive. The reason for this particular sector to not only survive but grow significantly during the global crisis. And that it offered people the escapism they direly needed. The strict lockdowns restricted them to their homes. And deprived them of their social life, which became one hell of a challenge. Hence, to maintain their sanity levels and cope with the life-changing upheavals. The people adopted their own mode of escapism; gaming being the go-to. According to a report, US video game sales reached the highest target in March 2021.
Where gaming saved people from torturous confinement, it also incurred some adverse effects. The scammers noticed the increased attention towards gaming. And the absence of adequate identity verification solutions, hence, they grabbed the opportunity instantly. The dramatic increase in audience engagement attracted the scammers to intervene with their evil intentions. The minors fell prey to their scams the most, due to insufficient knowledge about potential risks.
The most common Gaming Scams experienced during covid:
The increased audience engagement with the gaming websites invited the scammers to disrupt the systems. People of all age groups could easily access these websites as they lacked adequate KYC verification solutions. Although the regulatory authorities have made it obligatory for the gaming websites to adopt adequate gaming verification services, negligence in this regard is widely observed. This is exactly what has led to the increased rate of phishing scams and identity thefts.
Some most common gaming scams reported in the past few years are as follows:
- Phishing scams: The most common tactic of scammers to disrupt the normal functioning of the gaming website is stealing the identity of the players via phishing. This is particularly done via an email that the player receives for password confirmation. The page that they get directed to, requires them to enter their old credentials and as soon as a user enters them, the scammer gets access to his account. He then uses it for illicit purposes like selling virtual gold on the dark web.
- Credential Stuffing: Another common practice in this regard is credential stuffing. The criminals buy the already stolen user identities from the dark web. And enter them into the automated software that further directs them into the gaming websites. Although it, at times, gets difficult for the cybercriminals, to find the match on the websites, most of the time they succeed in doing so. One significant way that the users fall prey to credential stuffing is keeping the same weak passwords for various gaming websites. Here are the ways to avoid delaware bpo robocall
- The Malware Scam:
This is yet another go-to for cybercriminals. Injecting malware into the systems of the players is a ridiculously easy task for fraudsters. They do this by sending links infected with malicious software. And fooling the gamers into thinking it is some new game that they are downloading. What they think is a game, is actually malicious software that disrupts their systems. And the scammers gain access to their private data, get remote control over the devices and also log their keystrokes. Moreover, through this particular scam, the fraudsters could get access to the player’s banking details as well. - Fake Cheat Codes or Upgrades: Modern games often require players to earn power-ups in order to complete their missions or upgrade their levels. Some games offer new uniforms or tech goodies for the players willing to pay for them. In order to access those, the gamers often look for cheat codes to save themselves from difficult and repetitive tasks. Here is when the scammers intervene and spam the player’s message board with messages saying. That they have the cheat codes. As soon as the players send them money, the scammer disappears the next second.
Know Your Player Gaming Compliance:
The gaming compliance regulations issued by the regulatory authorities prevent a gaming website from being subjected to scams that disrupt its systems. Similar to Know Your Customer (KYC) policies, the Know Your Player solutions exist for gaming websites. These policies majorly help them to identify their players, verify and authenticate their identities. Hence, online gaming verification with KYC helps the gaming websites to verify the user’s identity from a range of different sources without compromising security.
Why is Customer Due Diligence important in Gaming?
The gaming websites that keenly comply with the security regulations keep in view that they should be maintaining a healthy balance between maintaining security and making profits. Hence during the gaming verification process, if any suspicious activity is detected. The customer due diligence deals with it instantly. Online gaming safety is maintained by integrating appropriate gamer checks in the security networks. And granting access to the users after that.