Scammers are going after Elder Scrolls Online accounts by posing as the game’s developers and informing players that their accounts will be banned unless they hand over their credentials, BleepingComputer reports. The fraudsters convey their scam by PlayStation private messages, and that makes it difficult for the recipients to verify the legitimacy of the sender’s account. The messages state that the developers have detected unusual activity associated with the player’s account, and the player will have to provide their email address and password in order to verify their account.

“Under the current circumstances, you have 15 minutes from opening this alert to respond with the required information,” the message reads. “Failure to do so will result in an immediate Account Ban, permanently losing online access to our servers on all platforms, along with all characters associated with the account in question. Please be sure to double check your information spelling before sending.”

As is typical in phishing schemes, the scammers provide a deadline to force the victim to act before they’ve had time to research the request or gather their thoughts. Lawrence Abrams at BleepingComputer says that companies will contact you via email or through their own platform if there’s a problem with your account.

“Any messages you receive on a console’s gaming service should always be suspect and ignored, especially if they ask for your password, which a company will never do,” Abrams writes.

People need to know that they should never send anyone their passwords, even if the request appears to come from a company they have an account with. New-school security awareness training can teach your employees to recognize social engineering techniques, no matter where they crop up.

BleepingComputer has the story: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-elder-scrolls-online-devs-run-playstation-phishing-scam/

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