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The gaming industry gained a significant boom during the pandemic, which is still on its way to a tremendous success rate. In 2021, there were 82.98 billion mobile game downloads, and the user penetration rate is expected to hit 28.5% by 2025. It shows that there is no going back for the gaming industry.
With users spending 90% of their mobile devices’ time on games and apps, Raghib Khan, Co-Founder of Phonato Studios’ finds it extremely necessary to bring forth the related mobile gaming scams with the growing users. He believes by shedding light on the mobile gaming scams; users will come to know about the difference one click can make to the scammers and their personal information.
RNF Technologies’ Raghib Khan On Mobile Gaming Scams
Given the comfort of playing from anywhere and at any time with any device, although it boosts the user’s experience, it also welcomes unwanted attention from scammers. Raghib Khan, Phonato Studios, being in the industry for 10+ years, understands how poor app development standards and security make the games vulnerable to gaming scams. There’s a need for solid app building and security systems. Let’s see the common mobile gaming scams discussed by Raghib Khan.
Most Frequent Mobile Gaming Scams
False Apps & Malware Injection
Scammers create fake apps that look almost like real, popular gaming apps. They trick gamers into downloading false apps over genuine ones. After downloading, the scammers get complete access to the user’s data, including personal and account details. With the user’s data, scammers operate the user’s account and break into other accounts and gaming accounts, which puts the charges on the gamer’s account.
When other gamers know about their hacked accounts, the charges are again imposed on one of the hacked accounts. It becomes difficult to track the scammer responsible for all these wrongdoings.
Also, along with these fake game downloads, some scammers inject malware into the user’s device, and with this malware, they gain control over the gamer’s device and continue their malpractices.
Scam Emails Asking For User’s Update
Scammers often send emails or messages to gamers asking them to update or verify their information to prevent their account’s termination. The message is sent along with a link directing gamers to a fake site that looks similar to a legit gaming site. Without confirming the source, the gamers enter their information and thus leak their personal data to them, making them vulnerable to such scams, points Raghib Khan, RNF Technologies.
With this one click, the gamer hands over all the personal details to the scammers, who then take advantage of their information. The gamers who have suffered from such gaming scams spread it to others, blaming the legit gaming app unknown of the intermediate scammers. It harms the reputation and trust of the genuine gaming business, whereas scammers are free to invade other gamers’ accounts.
Scam In Advertising The Games
The gaming industry thrives on free games, where one can purchase in-game virtual items like powers, coins, or accessories with real money. The app developers earn money from these purchases. Developers pay a lot to promote their games to attract more gamers. But again, while they work with advertising companies, they don’t investigate enough and sometimes get trapped with advertising scammers. These scammers use bots to get clicks to the game; it appears to the developers that their game is being downloaded by people, whereas in reality, there are no such people who are playing their games. It’s just bots!
Phonato Studios’ Raghib Khan highlights how scammers benefit as they get the money for each click from the developers. With time, they realized they were being tricked into paying for advertisements that never worked.
Final Thoughts
These are a few of the most common gaming scam schemes used by scammers to collect users’ data and millions of dollars. It’s time for users to understand that accepting the technology is no doubt necessary to stay updated with the world, and staying alert is equally essential for your security and privacy, emphasizes RNF Technologies’ Raghib Khan.
