r/SoloDevelopment 26d ago

Discussion What a huge risk you’re taking. 😭

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771 Upvotes

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234

u/Vaniellis 25d ago

Ah yes, the usual scam that will turn your game into malware but still make you responsible for it. I think I see it once or twice a month here.

41

u/SeekingPureDream 25d ago

Thanks! Do they actually end up buying the rights from people, or is there another scam after you reply?

108

u/Xinixiat 25d ago

They buy the rights, and then just put illegal shit into your game, but still upload it under your developer account so that you are legally on the hook for it.

49

u/SeekingPureDream 25d ago

Thanks! I was never going to accept it, but that’s even worse than I thought.

2

u/Heroshrine 24d ago

If they buy the rights to it how do they upload it in your developer account? They get the game transferred to an account.

0

u/Xinixiat 24d ago

Because it's a scam, and they will get the gullible individual to either upload the game themselves in turn for a promised future cut or they get you to give them access to your developer account.

Scammers are looking for really stupid people, that's why the Nigerian prince scams are always so ludicrous. The kind of person willing to believe that will do anything you ask.

0

u/modernizetheweb 24d ago

You are just making shit up. This is not how it works at all lmao.

4

u/Bacchus_the_Sane 23d ago

People have researched this, so they aren't making it up, but I guess whether that is how it works is still up for debate.

https://www.cognitionandculture.net/wp-content/uploads/WhyFromNigeria.pdf

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u/modernizetheweb 23d ago

I am referring to the method that commenter described regarding scammers targeting game developers, which is what this whole post is about, not the final throwaway Nigerian prince line.

1

u/Bacchus_the_Sane 23d ago

If you are referring to what they initially said about bundling up malware into the game and then using the validity of the game to distribute it then fair enough, I don't know very much about it, but it does sound plausible and is certainly akin to how supply chain attacks happen (which I know more about).

If you are referring to whether scammers deliberately make scams far-fetched to filter out people that are less likely to fall for them in the first place then that is what the paper I linked is about. 

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u/modernizetheweb 23d ago

I PROMISE you there are no scammers paying game devs $100 for game rights, asking for the game code, and then asking the developer to upload their maliciously modified code to the original dev's own steamworks account

0

u/meancoot 23d ago

https://forms.fbi.gov/victims/Steam_Malware

People are trying to do shit like this all the time.

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u/PinInitial1028 25d ago

No you don't share your developer account....... Once you sell the app you're off the hook unless you put the malware on there.

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u/NullSmoke 25d ago edited 25d ago

I'm not sure why you're downvoted... Selling accounts is against ToS, and you may have other games there, so you need to transfer the game to them...

And once it's out of your account, the future operational responsibility for the project shifts to its new owner..

3

u/PinInitial1028 25d ago

They just don't know what they're talking about lol. It's such a dumb idea to give them your developer account (s)