Fake ‘Pokemon’ NFT Games Wants to Hack your PC via NetSupport

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 10 January 2023, 01:01 am

Fake "Pokémon" NFT games are appearing online, and while they highly resemble their legitimate counterparts, do not be fooled by what it looks like and what it offers as they could potentially be dangerous for your PC. It masquerades as a game, and while it brings people to a website that was designed to look real, it leads people to download a malicious program via NetSupport.

Several games are available online for free, but it is important to look for their legit developer and publisher before downloading, as it could be confusing with how clever these threat actors design them to be.

Beware of Fake 'Pokemon' NFT Games Online

(Photo : The Pokemon Company)

Tech Radar reported that two websites were caught baiting gamers into thinking that they are the legitimate game, bringing the experience to PCs, and pushing for its download and installation.

These websites, beta-pokemoncards.io, and pokemon-go.io, were pretending to be the real deal and hosting legitimate Pokemon games on its platform. It offers NFT alongside this new Pokemon experience to gamers, which helps in luring these unsuspecting victims.

It would then lead gamers to click the "Play on PC" button to download these titles and would use NetSupport to distribute them.

According to the report, these websites were already taken down but this is not the last of the many similar scams online.

Look for Legit Developers' Downloads Only

For Pokemon games, there are only three names that one should look out for, and these are The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, and Game Freak.

Moreover, most platforms for "Pokemon" games mainly center on the Nintendo Switch and iOS or Android mobile devices.

'Pokemon' and its Franchise

There is indeed a massive list of new "Pokemon" games available on the Nintendo eShop and the mobile platforms' application stores online. Its developer and publisher, Game Freak and Nintendo, surely brought the world many experiences under the franchise, it could be confusing or hard to keep track of now.

From its famous role-playing game under the regular series that delivers new regions and species of Pokemon, down to its latest Digital Trading Card Game beta, the franchise has one for all gamers.

The franchise is a global hit, and this could be a massive reason why many threat actors capitalize on this for their personal gains.

These two new games that were recently taken down are only a few of the many fake titles available online, which goal is to bait gamers looking for other experiences. However, do not let that fool you as most likely, these are fakes or scams that want to install programs on your computer that would secretly steal your information or money, unknowingly.