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Fake Copy of My Game. Phishing? Virus? Crypto? itch Support Not Responding

A topic by cassiusjohnadams created Dec 19, 2022 Views: 488 Replies: 9
Viewing posts 1 to 5

I received a Google Alert for my game, MiLE HiGH TAXi, showing that it had magically appeared on itch.io.  Since I haven't published it here or even created an account (prior to just now), it's an obvious fake.  Most likely it's either virus-filled, a trojan, crypto, or some malware for phishing.

Whereas my game takes about 1.4GB, the fake shows about 69MB.  They've also used my name.

These are NOT me.

And this is NOT my game

I've been emailing itch's Support for weeks now without a peep back.  Given the nature of it and that it's likely illegal software I would have thought they'd act quickly.  What do I need to do to draw their attention to this?

Cheers!

Either use the report button or file a DMCA claim.

The "report" option says to email support, which is what I've been doing. 

Moderator

The report link at the bottom of the project page? It should open a form. Works for me.

Yup, I had tried that and tried reporting it as "Uploader not authorized to distribute" but choosing that says to email support, so that's what I've been doing.  Nonetheless, I've gone through and chosen "Other" this time.  Maybe they'll notice it now.

Any time anyone suggests here to 'contact support', I'm like oh well, this isn't getting solved ever lol. I'm honestly not even sure if itch's support is even real at this point. They're either massively backlogged or massively understaffed. Not once have they replied to any of my queries EVER. Maybe if you make a big enough fuss about it they'll respond. Their support definitely needs a lot of work.

The thing is, I don't really plan to release my game on Itch.io - at least not at this point.  So it's not like I need them to get kicked off so I can publish my game.  My only concern here is that people are getting duped and it's going to result in some bad things for some people.

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If I were you I would immediately file a DMCA claim: https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms#6-digital-millennium-copyright-act

If the fake game is actually doing something bad, the victims might turn on you thinking you are responsible. Itch have to respond to a DMCA and take action, by law.

Yeah, I think that's the only way this thing is going to move forward and protect people.  I've sent them a DMCA Notice.

I got an automated reply from itch within 2 minutes of sending the DMCA notice.  Maybe this is getting somewhere now.

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