"Do not trade with this person." These very clear words were posted at the end of 2022, by an internet user on a forum for Adopt Me! players. This children's game, in which you can adopt and raise colorful animals, is one of the most popular on the Roblox platform. The message was alerting players to a player calling himself NeedleworkerJaded336, who offers to trade items via private message. "He'll send you a link asking you to add him as a friend," continued the user issuing the warning. At first glance, this link directs to a Roblox profile, where the victim is prompted to sign into their account to send a friend request.

However, it actually leads to a fraudulent website – Roblox.com.vu – that impersonates the official site and is designed to steal the login credentials of players who connect to it, enabling the theft of their items or the resale of their accounts. "They log into your account and transfer all your pets to another profile," explained the forum user. Called "beaming," this practice is well known. Specialist site Motherboard devoted a lengthy 2022 investigation to this phenomenon and Roblox account thieves. The latter use a turn-key tool, generally provided within small communities of low-level hackers, to create fake profiles and advertise them by various means.

A gigantic market

Like Fortnite, Minecraft and all popular online games, Roblox is a veritable sandbox for hackers. The latest report from security specialist Kaspersky, which publishes an annual overview of threats targeting gamers, shows that the games most popular with children are also often the most targeted by hacking campaigns and scams of all kinds. This is due to the colossal number of players, and therefore potential targets: over 100 million per month for Minecraft and 65 million users connected every day on Roblox.

As with all popular computer software, these games are an ideal vector for distributing viruses or tools used to install viruses. In the case of paid games, such as Minecraft, there is a vast market in "cracked" versions, i.e. pirated and put online for internet users wishing to play for free. This black market is particularly favored for spreading viruses, disguised as pirated versions of popular games.

These video games also offer another entry point for malware developers: "mods" and extensions developed by other gamers. Minecraft, in particular, supports a gigantic ecosystem of independent creators offering free or for-sale graphical enhancements, new game modes, weapons or items. This too is a godsend for the ill-intentioned. In the summer of 2022, platforms distributing mods for Minecraft in particular discovered that hackers had succeeded in using them to spread malicious software, designed to steal personal identifiers and cryptocurrencies.

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