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GTA V PC torrent scam hits thousands

Thousands of hopeful GTA fans have been infected by a virus scam masquerading as the PC version of Rockstar's GTA V.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
2 min read

Thousands of hopeful GTA fans have been infected by a virus scam masquerading as the PC version of Rockstar's GTA V.

(Credit: WCCF Tech)

Rockstar hasn't yet announced a PC version of the overwhelmingly popular GTA V, and fans are desperate for it. A massive number of people, over 614,000, have signed a Change.org petition to port the game — which smashed through seven world records in its opening weekend — to PC, and industry sources have hinted at a PC version coming in early 2014.

But when you want what you want when you want it, sometimes common sense flies right out the window. Thousands of hopeful PC gamers have downloaded a legitimate-seeming torrent file claiming to be GTA V only to find their machines infested with malware, WCCF Tech has reported.

The file looks legit, appearing near the top of Google search results, and nearly 7000 users have connected; however, appearing as a setup.exe file, the first clue that something could be awry is the file size 18.3GB, compared with 7.7GB for the Xbox 360 version.

When users go to install the game, they're asked to complete surveys that require personal information in return for a .txt file containing a key. At this point, though, 18GB worth of malware has already been let loose on the users' PCs.

Of course, this isn't the only GTA V PC torrent scam out there — a quick web search reveals several results. Your best bet is, of course, not to download anything that doesn't come from Rockstar or its authorised resellers, especially before the developer has even announced a PC version of the game.