In 2022, two major cases were reported where hackers managed to steal skins for CS:GO for a tidy sum. Know about such events is useful not only for the sake of satisfying curiosity, but also in order not to find yourself in a similar situation: after all, even if your inventory is much cheaper than those discussed below, no one wants to lose honestly obtained items.
The problem of skin theft by cheaters has existed as long as the Steam trading platform itself, and the developers are trying to combat this phenomenon. It was to protect users that tradelock was once introduced , which makes you have to wait a week before you can sell an item you've received. But such measures are often not enough.
Inventory
worth2 million
In late June of this year, reports surfaced of an incident in which more than $2 million worth of inventory was stolen. According to a trader known by the nickname ohnePixel, it included seven souvenir AWPDragonLore as well as the rarest varieties of Karambit knives, including the #1 BlueGemKarambit, which is estimated to be worth over a million dollars. It remains unknown exactly how the hackers managed to gain access to the account. It's reported that HFB, its original owner, hasn't logged in for several years. This may have been the reason why the hacker was able to seize control of the account and sell the skins to other users.
Shortly after this massive theft became known, Valve canceledthe transactions made by the hacker and all items were returned to the owner's account. Thus, those who purchased the skins without knowing that they were stolen were the victims, as they paid a lot of money and ended up losing their skins. Those who made purchases on large third-party sites managed to get out of the situation without losses, as their administration was eventually forced to reimburse users for the money spent.
CS.money
hackAnother similar case occurred last week, and this time the hackers targeted not a specific collector, but the CS.Money trading platform. On August 13, Twitter posted a screenshot with a list of accounts to which the stolen skins, worth more than $1.5 million, were transferred. Concurrent with the main attack, the hackers tried to divert attention by directing trade offers to the accounts of major skin owners. It is believed that the purpose of this tactic – is to make it harder for Valve to separate legitimate transactions from fraudulent ones.
As a result, the service had to suspend transactions, and the feature remains unavailable to this day. For now, it remains unclear whether CS.Money will be able to recover the stolen skins. The company has announced a reward for any information about the details of the hack.
In conclusion, let us remind you of the basic rules that will help you keep your inventory safe and sound:
.- Use a mobile authenticator and keep an eye on which sites you log in with Steam to avoid becoming a victim of phishing;
- carefully check the composition of the exchange offers you receive;
- use large trading platforms, such as Lis-Skins.ru – they not only offer a wide range of skins, but also take care of user security;
- read exchange rules carefully and don't hesitate to write to support if you have any doubts – e.g. if someone else writes to you on our behalf.