Warning – CS:GO Scam attempt using ebeatgo and other fake websites How to protect your CounterStrike: Global Offensive account from a new malicious scam/phishing attempt involving a seemingly legitimate e-sport website

Another scam threat to watch out for all CounterStrike: Global Offensive players is spreading fast on Steam platform in mid-March 2019.  This time the malicious attempt does involve a seemingly legitimate independent e-sport website (ebeat, csgoknifeworld and other bombastic names which may seem somewhat “plausible” to the average CS:GO player) which is definitely a fake platform born with the sole intent of stealing your account using a non-legit “sign-in with Steam”login page.

The scammers

Here’s a non-comprehensive list of the scammers who have been reported to us so far:

• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198833010141/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198382506636/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198832425730/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198816608086/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198089706807/
• https://steamcommunity.com/id/jonnysins6969/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198833948309/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198866164404/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198834822198/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198873647192/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198833859909/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198884139307/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198860420008/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198832425726/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198922861714/
• https://steamcommunity.com/id/midnlght666/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198832834661/
• https://steamcommunity.com/id/bloodyherebitches/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198859231424/
• https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198385932468/

It’s worth noting that most of them are probably stolen accounts that have also been hijacked by this method, since the average steam level is rather high. This basically means that, if you get scammed, your account will most likely be used/botted to scam your friends… just like a zombie. Pretty scary, isn’t it?

The fake websites

Here’s a non comprehensive list of the fake websites that has been reported to us so far:

• https://ebeatgo.com/ (also referred as “ebeat” or “ebeatgo” by the scammer)
• https://csgoknifeworld.com/
• http://fastgameit.com/
• https://ebprocup.com/
• https://ebsilvercup.com/
• https://eb5vs5.com/
• https://ebsummer.com/

The scam attempt usually sticks to the following pattern: these guys (or other people you should crash into) will try to add you as a friend: once you accepted them, they’ll introduce themselves and politely ask you about your CS:GO rank, daily activities/playing time and so on. Right after that, they’ll say that they needs one more player for their team for a “cup” or “tournament” on one of the aforementioned fake websites: if you ask them what ebeat is – since you’ll most likely never heard about ebeat before – they’ll told you that it’s a new CS:GO independent platform just like ESEA, FACEIT and so on.

Then they’ll send you the link to the fake website, which is the place where the scam will happen. Going to the website won’t pose an immediate threat on you, however you’ll immediately be able to acknowledge it as a scam website, with the typical Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate (a quick way to get a free SSL certificate for any website, which is great for encryption yet not-so-great for the trust level aspects), a fake “sign-in with Steam” button, a poorly made SSO fake-login page and everything else you would expect on a non-legitimate scamming website. Needless to say, you must definitely restrain yourself from doing that – and ban + report the scammer instead.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, there aren’t much info regarding this scam method on the web yet, therefore we’re writing this post hoping to help other CS:GO users and players to to avoid being hijacked by these people and also to publicly release these informations against this new threat, hoping that Valve will soon have it shutdown.

UPDATE: here’s another story published on the SteamRep forum which is strictly related to this topic:

• https://forums.steamrep.com/threads/report-76561198382506636-none-no-items.188267/

Feel free to add your story in the comments, as well as the Steam profile links of the scammers: we’ll do our best to keep this post updated with your experience.