It's a trap! Malware disguises itself as Grand Theft Auto 5 for PC gamers

After hitting more than $1 billion in sales in a scant seven days, Grand Theft Auto 5 is officially a cultural phenomenon--at least if you're a console gamer.

While PlayStation and Xbox buffs have been busy wreaking havoc as Trevor, Michael, and Franklin, snubbed PC gamers have been left filing out signature-packed Change.org petitions in an attempt to convince Rockstar Games to bring its blockbuster to the PC.

Enter the scammers. How can they resist, with that much pent-up demand?

While Rockstar has yet to announce any formal PC plans, a torrent dubbed "GTA V Full PC Game + Crack" has popped up on illegal download sites, sporting a hefty 18GB file size. Could this be it?

Nope.

WCCFTech, the first site to report on the torrent, reports that attempting to install the "game" takes you to a phishing site that attempts to coax you into handing over your personal information to "register" the title. And what about the 18GB worth of files itself? That's less clear. In a best-case scenario, it's just junk data that clogged your pipes and chewed up your bandwidth cap. In a worst-case scenario--and a more likely one--it's probably infested with malware and other nasty stuff.

Several less-than-scrupulous PC gamers appear to have taken in by the scam. WCCFTech claims the torrent has been downloaded "thousands" of times; while I'm not able to verify that, a quick check at torrent sites shows that "GTA V Full PC Game + Crack" still has several hundred seeders and leechers.

Be patient, fellow PC gamers. GTA IV landed on PCs a few months after appearing on consoles, as have most of Rockstar's other games. (Quiet, you disappointed Red Dead Redemption fans.)

Tags games

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