Call Of Duty Hackers Reached A New Low
Hackers are a huge problem in "Call of Duty: Warzone," and they are only getting worse. Your average, everyday hacker just boldly flaunts the game's rules and anti-cheat systems for their own amusement, which enrages legitimate players to no end. But lately, hackers have set their sights even higher — or lower, depending on your perspective.
Recently, hackers have stopped targeting game clients as much and have started directly attacking gamers instead. A particularly notorious example is a trojan disguised as a cheat engine. Once would-be cheaters download this virus, it hamstrings their security and leaves their computers wide open to more viruses. While this particular payload is ideal for thieves who want to steal a player's personal information and credit card numbers, it only affects the disreputable players.
However, some hackers have also stooped to messing with other players' accounts. It's sort of like if someone tried to ransomware your PhD dissertation, but instead of just locking the copy saved on your computer, they also got a hold of your cloud backups.
You want the stolen account back? That will be $30 in unmarked bitcoins, please
According to numerous Reddit posts, the accounts Activision links to every player are not secure in the slightest. For instance, Redditor RexiGator posted a video showing that he found his "Call of Duty: Warzone" account had been hijacked and nerfed down to level one. All his progression and season emblems were scrubbed from existence. But, he was one of the lucky ones because even though his account was hacked, he still could use it.
Another Reddit user, GABSI1, claimed that their "Warzone" account hadn't just been hacked, it had been outright stolen. A friend provided a quick text conversation with the alleged thief, who claimed they purchased the account legitimately (which is against the game's terms of service). The supposed hacker then assured GABSI1's friend they could buy the account back for $30 in bitcoin. Admittedly, GABSI1 didn't use two-factor authentication beforehand and didn't realize their account was in illegitimate hands until they tried activating it, but assuming the post is trustworthy, the fact remains that a hacker stole their account.
In a confusing turn of events, the "Warzone" subreddit moderators have since archived RexiGator's and GABSI1's posts. This either means the company wants to prevent gamers from panicking over the hacker threat, or that RexiGator and GABSI1 were trying to scare up sympathy with false stories, and the mods were cutting them off. Fans probably won't know which is the case until later.