Fallout 4 Pirate Learns Expensive Lesson as Bitcoins Go Missing

You should never pirate games or software in general, that is something that we all know. There are those who can’t resist that temptation now and the, but it can end very badly and end up costing you a lot more than just purchasing the game straight away. That was a lesson that was learned by Redditor arkanoah as he discovered that 4.88 BitCoin went missing from his wallet.

He took his problem to Reddit in order to try to figure out where his missing BitCoin were and how they got missing. Other Redditors were quick to notice the time of disappearance, November 11th, which coincides with the time that Fallout 4 was released. Asking the question if he had pirated that or another game was answered with yes and that’s most likely the way his BitCoin were stolen.

Cracked software is risky to download as it often contains malware in one form or another and it is the most likely scenario that this is the way that the 4.88 BitCoin went missing. The user originally scanned his download with antivirus software and later the system with Malwarebytes and GMER which both returned zero infections. So whether the attacker cleaned his tracks after downloading and cracking arkanoah’s BitCoin wallet or the mechanism used is so sophisticated that it isn’t being detected is up to everyone’s own guess, we most likely won’t find out. It is however most likely that the perpetrator cleaned his tracks before leaving the victim’s computer.

At the time, the 4.88 BitCoin were worth $1773, quite a bit more than the game would have cost him on Steam or other platforms. Lesson learned, I hope.