Scammers target aspiring games beta testers

Scammers purportedly looking for beta testers for computer games have lately stepped up their efforts, says Sunbelt‘s Christopher Boyd.

He has observed two distinct spam/scam campaigns, one of which targets forum users and presents to them this tantalizing offer:

The site in question is gamertestingground(dot)com, a well-known scam site that – according to a commenter on Web of Trust – simply offers you links to job search sites and career pages on game developer sites. “A simple Google search can help you find both, no need paying $35 for it,” he says.

But, when they ask you to pay, you are not told specifically what are you getting – except for a “membership”.

The other scam starts with an email:

Eurogamer.net is a popular videogaming site. The scammer has somehow managed to get registered as a member of the site’s staff, and proceeded to send the above email to random users.

Needless to say, the offer wasn’t legitimate and the victims lost money. On the bright side, Eurogamer discovered (or was notified) of the scam and has deleted the scammer’s account.

It is good to remember that online offers that are too good to be true often are. When considering to accept one, it is best to do a thorough net search for similar offers – chances are, someone else has already been duped and has reported it.