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PSA: Beware the "try my game" scam Sticky

A topic by leafo created Sep 22, 2021 Views: 64,054 Replies: 117
Viewing posts 67 to 86 of 91 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page

I JUST WANNA PLAY PT ONILE

will this not prevent game promotion? 

(+1)

Then how do we promote our games. This will prevent download 

good Question. But do you think spamming random people on discord is a good way of promoting your game? would you try games or would you feel spammed by such requests?

that's true, thanks

https://insalexteam.itch.io/tankie

https://incalexteam.itch.io/tanks-bloodmoon

https://quinteam.itch.io/tanks-bloodmania

https://dxv-team.itch.io/tanks-bloodmoon

https://strixteam.itch.io/tanks-bloodmoon

https://riststeams.itch.io/tanks-bloodmoon

https://pet-team.itch.io/tanks-bloodmania

All of these links above are still operational and lead to a site that says password protected and those cannot be reported. 

Admin (3 edits) (+1)

If you have the password you can report the page by entering the password and using the report link on the page. Keep in mind that in the case where we suspend pages, it may still show the password prompt but the page itself is not accessible at all, entering any password will fail.

(+1)
in the case where we suspend pages, it may still show the password prompt but the page itself is not accessible at all

aaah. that would explain it.

If I were to implement it and delete/suspend a scammers page, I would host a "you fell for a scam, be more careful next time" page for a few weeks to educate the potential victims. If they just see nothing or nothing after entering password,    they might even naivly ask the scammer for a new link.

I feel like this game is also causing people getting hacked, cause someone tried hacking me with it.

https://tbmteam.itch.io/tankbm

What is the password to the archive?

I can take a look at it in a VM

haven't gotten into the archive, but the password into the file was "TBm123"

it is down already but I suspect it would have been either the redline stealer or the lumma stealer

ahhh, okay. thank you so much!

Any details?

when i scam is trying to get me i will report it to the moderators because thats what i do

(6 edits)

https://itch.io/profile/xpsycho

appears to be an account stolen using the try my game scam, now being used to proliferate the scam.

ETA: Another account got caught by this same scammer and is now being used as well:

https://itch.io/profile/tonythepoisse

These have been spamming an NSFW version of the scam on SFW game pages.

Edit 2: Thanks.

https://frostprojects.itch.io/tempo-quest  This one hit a friend recently

(+1)

https://tempooteam.itch.io
https://tempooteam.itch.io/tanks-bloodmania
These ones trying to steal my discord be careful alwaqys the same tank game

(4 edits)

Next round of NSFW try my game scam on SFW pages:

https://itch.io/profile/werty-l (username changed, now: https://itch.io/profile/frost555lol)

https://itch.io/profile/lowfi123

Impersonating Sakura Sadist by Winged Cloud.

TIA for taking out these scammers. I know reports on comments go to page owners, and I'm not really comfortable going to the NSFW page to report it. Out of curiosity, do reports on game pages go to the page owner as well?

do reports on game pages go to the page owner as well?

If you talk about the report button on game pages, that would be quite funny, if that report would go to the page owner you are complaining about.

Just click the report button if you stumble upon such scams. You can scroll down really fast or use an incognito browser, depending why you are uncomfortable visiting such pages.

They usually have two accounts. One new and one hacked.  One account hosts the game and the other spams. If the hoster gets banned, the spammer then hosts the game. I assume this is because it is difficult to report the spammer. As you have pointed out, the reports go to the game page owners. You cant report users directly to itch with report buttons. there is moderation in between. A reason why these scams often happen around weekend I presume.

the report button on the game page is indeed what I meant, sorry if my wording wasn't clear.

Two more accounts doing the "Try my game" scam, one that appears to have been stolen by the scam and one by the scammers.

https://itch.io/profile/xpsycho

https://fignats.itch.io

I have a game that just isn't practical to be a webgl.  What's the best way to show people that the download is trust worthy?  On steam there are different people who are well known for making sure all of the steam awards work.  Is there someone on itch that is reliable and tests games to make sure they're not malware who could give a review or something?

Not having a password protected archive, not having exe that require admin rights, being careful about stuff like runtime compressing giving false positives, hosting on itch,  etc.

Scammers like to post on hacked accounts, so an established account is no guarantee for trust.

What you ask for is something like a human tested approval badge. With current itch system that is not possible. Reviews are not public in that sense.  In theory you could be on public game collections to that effect. But on a game page you can not check, if the game is on such a collection.

Scammers also got more clever by allowing comments, they just delete  the comments of people giving warning.   And posting comment with, this is legit good game, no viruses, I promise... yeah. That is what a scammer would say ;-)

There is a reason why publishing on steam costs money.

Dang.  That sucks not having an approval badge or something.  Okay.  Thanks for the advice!

I found one of these scammers trying to pull this on me

https://deadtrigger-pc.itch.io/deadtrigger

the page isn't up yet but maybe you can find them

https://hatanopowell.itch.io/maritas-games
take this down please, thanks!!

https://triasels.itch.io/selatria-beta

The page is currently password protected but the messages I got line up pretty well with how this scam normally looks.

Admin

Thanks for the report. The account should be taken care of.

Hello, I just be scammed with a friend, there's two links: 

https://zeroinvadersgame.itch.io/zeroinvaders
https://tuesdayquest.itch.io/a-planet-of-mine

H
ow to do right now ? We remove the file, there's one process call WindowsBootManager a video game, we remove it too, what to do ? Change passwords on every website save in our website ? We already change password for discord, paypal etc. 
I feel like my computer is a bit slower right now, but I'm not sure so what to do please ? 

How do you know you been scammed?

If you believe you were, changing passwords is a good start. But maybe not do that on a system you think is compromised.

Booting up with a secure boot disk or usb stick and scanning for hidden surprises and otherwise scanning your system thoroughly might help too.

I tried three different scanners, and the file you claimed is a scam, was not recognised as such. Of course I will not execute it to check if it silently steals my passwords anyways. If it really is a scam, this is worrssome.

There's has to be a better way to avoid this scam and another better way to actually get your game tested without all your stuff getting stolen and not having

to spend a lot money on game testers.

Show post...

yes, it is

Yeah.. I got hit by this. Scary stuff :(

(+1)

Thanks for the warning. I'll be more careful. Although the Internet is a dangerous place - everyone knows this.

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