Russian Hamster Kombat Players Targeted by Phishing Attacks

Players of the popular clicker game Hamster Kombat in Russia are falling victim to phishing attacks. This was reported by Olga Svistunova, a security expert from Kaspersky Lab, to Cointelegraph.

“Our team has uncovered several fraudulent schemes targeting Hamster Kombat users. In one such scheme, attackers lure victims with promises of converting game coins into rubles using phishing links that require Telegram credentials,” she noted.

Access to accounts allows fraudsters to steal information, engage in blackmail, and send malicious messages. The scheme targets victims in Russia, but such an approach could be applied in other countries, Svistunova emphasized.

Another attack vector on users involves fake airdrops. According to Svistunova, this method is used by attackers to collect data on players’ crypto wallets.

“Fraudsters also create phishing sites where they supposedly sell Hamster cryptocurrency at a discount, deceiving users into providing access to their wallets,” she added.

There is also a widespread scheme involving fake websites, where victims are promised free coins to steal their crypto assets through “fraudulent commission payments.”

In July, Hamster Kombat developers announced that the game’s user base had exceeded 250 million accounts. They announced a second airdrop of the HMSTR token, although the first distribution of coins has yet to occur.

The Bybit exchange has opened a pre-market for the asset.

A survey conducted by VTsIOM revealed limited popularity of the game among Russians—42% of respondents had heard of it, but only 14% understood the essence of the “tap game.”