Cheaters in Apex Legends and CS:GO have their credit card details stolen

Hundreds of cheating players who cut corners to gain a competitive advantage in Apex Legends and CS:GO have reportedly had their details stolen by malware. 

Respawn Entertainment have been trying to crack down on cheaters in their popular battle royale game for quite some time, introducing a plethora of defense mechanisms to stop them, but it appears that many of them might well have shot themselves in the foot. 

According to a report from British security firm Sophos, via Kotaku, personal and financial information of people trying to cheat has been taken by a malware called Baldr. 

Apex Legends cheaters have been targeted by new information stealing malware.

This malware is believed to have stolen credit card details as well as login information for websites such as Amazon and PayPal, as well as details about the identities of cheaters. 

“The distributor can double down on the stolen victim logs, selling stolen credential/cardinformation to earn a little extra,” the report states. 

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You may be wondering just how such a devastating piece of malware found its way onto the devices of the cheaters, and the answer is pretty simple. It was hidden in several cheats that were posted online, with ‘Apex Legends New Cheat 0.2.1’ and ‘CSGO Aimbot+Wallhack’ being stated as examples in the report. 

Here’s one way Apex Legends players found ads for the malware.

These cheats were being advertised in YouTube video descriptions, during live Twitch broadcasts, and reportedly inside Discord servers as well – leading to a peak in popularity during May.

A Sophos threat researcher, Albert Zsigovits, suggested that Baldr had the ability to take all of this information in a matter of seconds – after the download took place. 

Sophos’ report includes this heat map, showing the countries most affected by Baldr.

The majority of cases being monitored are in the United States, Russia, Brazil, and Indonesia – which they say is around 600 in total. 

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However, this is still an ongoing issue. The cheat “continues to wreak havoc,” according to Zsigovits. “The cybercriminals who bought Baldr before it disappeared can still use the malware, and they are.”

If Respawn and Valve were looking for a way to dissuade cheaters from having an impact on matches in the future, this – as well the measures already enforced by the developers – might just do the trick.