About the only thing I can see that’s wrong with this diabolical plot is the fact suckers have to download an 18GB torrent before the malware is unleashed. Otherwise, there’s a bogus torrent of Grand Theft Auto V‘s nonexistent PC version that’s claimed several victims of late.
It bears mentioning one should not download this. But as none of us would ever do something this dumb, it’s fun to have a laugh, right? The site WCCFTech reports that the thing comes with a legit-looking installer and a realistic 18 GB setup file. Once a user gets to the registration window, users are sent to a page where they are forced to perform surveys in order to get the key.
Malware that exploits a popular game is a honoured trick, even if the game hasn’t been released yet. (Google Titanfall PC Torrent and you’ll get rickrolled). This one sticks out because of the effort victims have to put forth in getting the malware. Cognitive dissonance up the wazzoo, I guess, is why they do it. You google “GTA V PC Torrent” and you find sites with people complaining about slow download speeds in the comments. This thing even has a Facebook page, which went up on August 1. Seems legit.
While everyone is speculating that a GTA V version for PC is a matter of when, not if, for now such a thing exists only in the minds of half-a-zillion petition signers.
Legit-Looking GTA V PC “Leaked” Setup Infects Thousands of PCs Worldwide. [WCCFTech via NeoGAF]
Comments
33 responses to “Downloading The ‘GTA V PC Torrent’ Is 18GB Worth Of Bad Ideas”
Why would anyone search for a torrent via google? That’s beyond dumb. Why not save yourself the trouble and just get a ‘born to lose’ tattoo on your forehead? The survey thing though, that’s been around for ages. Anyone who torrents, even semi-regularly, is aware of the dodginess of these and knows to kill it right there and then. Usually…
alt+f4 those pricks as soon as they pop up, indeed!
Well sign me up for that tattoo then, because sometimes I search for torrents via google if its a very niche or hard to find movie/tv show that my usual torrent sites dont have
Agreed. I’ve found some almost impossible to find cult horror movies this way.
Here’s my reasoning– stay with me. I just figure searching through the forums of associated torrent sites or their affiliate sites will yield you better results than googling. Case in point, I had this stupid malware p.o.s. on my system after leaving it unattended when my wife decided to d/l a bunch of crap to enable her watch some damned video. When I googled the symptoms or the website the hijacker was sending me to (news.net in this case), all of the results were links to dodgy pages suggesting programs that would again infest my system, or to pages promising a removal tool which was in fact malware itself, all of which were accompanied with astroturfed reviews. By searching through the forums, I was able to cut out the vast majority of the BS and find what I needed to do and avoid dodgy links thanks largely to warnings other users posted.
And considering how companies can buy their placement in search results, especially with google, and given how many companies are trying to protect their brands and assuming the bulk of people will just ‘google’ it, I would expect torrent results would be compromised in one way or another.
I could be very wrong, or on the money, but that’s my reasoning, and it’s worked pretty well for me over the past 10 years. If what you do works for you, more power to you and apologies for any offense.
Does your wife have a ‘born to lose’ tattoo? Might be a nice Christmas present
Lol
No, but I can’t. It’ll never look as good as your mum’s…
Dont assume everyone is stupid.
Some of us (like myself and @energydrinkhigh) use google for those very hard to find torrents and we get no problems at all
You are all forgetting he probably googled to find the websites he gets torrents on in the first place
Who says I think @energydrinkhigh is stupid…?
Downloading video and music is much safer than downloading and running a foreign executable. Plus, once you have a game installed and ready to play, it’s very tempting to override Windows Defender and allow some crack it’s calling malware through. Thanks to the number of false positives I’m more often than not disregarding those warnings. I’m probably virus-ridden.
Scammers aren’t likely to pick a very obscure movie to put their malware in.
They want maximum effect for their efforts, so you’re more likely to find it in a dodgy copy of Photoshop, or the latest blockbuster movie that has only just come out.
I agree, but you surely wouldn’t Google “GTA V Torrents” would you? I think that’s the point he’s making which he’s absolutely right to make.
Is it ok if I Bing it?
Yes, but know that you’ve already lost
It’s what he was born to do.
If you are searching for something that is not listed on the main torrent sites then it’s a very good way to find your torrents. There’s zero chance of me finding the obscure metal I like on TPB, but if I google it then I don’t have to trawl through 100 Euro sites that I can’t read. How is that beyond dumb?
WHAT??? I’m 97% complete… Gonna wait it out and see. Probably just the developer saying it’s bogus to stop us from getting it for free!!!
Good luck with that.
Cognitive dissonance up the wazzoo, I guess is more common than expected.
“such a thing exists only in the minds of half-a-zillion petition signers.”
in “simple person” terms, you’re downloading a thing that doesn’t exist.. yet..
So, why would you ” wait it out and see “???
Enjoy your Free Malware.
He’s downloading GTA5, not iTunes. Geez.
I did a search out of curiosity, and found one that was 32mb big. They claimed it was an emulator. PS3 / Xbox 360 emulator? Of course!
Damn 32 MB…that’s huge =P
Just teasing.
Being in Australia, that’s five years worth of monthly data allowance (at $200 a month), so no GTA V emulator until at least 2018 🙁
Being in Australia … you need to change ur internet plan/provider. I hope you don’t pay 200 a month, if you are you’re being ripped. I get hundreds of gigabytes for less than a third of that.
People are stupid and karma’s a bitch. I don’t see the problem here.
Indeed Karma IS a bitch, because with you being their favourite nephew, they’ll get you on the phone (because their children won’t answer their calls any more) and you’ll be forced to tech-support this issue at “family rates” (i.e. $0)
Sure, I’ll fix your PC for free, you service my car/paint my house/run some new plumbing at my house etc, whatever they do for a living.
Or just have reasonable boundaries in place.
Mum: “I had a call from Uncle Fred today. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?! He was in tears and said that you were rude to him on the phone. Didn’t appreciate that you summed up his job as ‘Just nailing some wood together and making a table’”
You: “But.. I..”
Mum: “Not interested. You call him up right now and apologize, and fix his damn computer so that your father doesn’t get stuck with the job. Do you really want that, with his bad back and all? I thought not”
You need to set up appropriate boundaries with your mother as well.
I might torrent the 18gb and run it in wine to see what’s up… Chumps on windows getting virused is business as usual.
Yeah, same as chumps on macs who download and install viruses. Never heard of this happening on linux though.
1. All systems are vulnerable. There are no exceptions.
2. It’s been known for years now that malware running in Wine can affect the host operating system. Wine is not an emulator, it doesn’t run in a sandbox.
Without knowing the nature of the malware, I wouldn’t push my luck.
You are the dumbest person to ever dumb.
PENNY ARCADE IS ALWAYS RELEVANT: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/11/04
It has happened before, it will happen again.
(Uhm. Disclaimer… In 2002, 300MB was a lot of data. No really.)
It was also three to five hours to download. =/
18GB of lesbians. I’m not even mad.
Downloading now. Can’t wait!
Anyone who fell for this deserves what they got.
There is no need for an idiotic petition to get V on PC, GTA will always come to PC.
I watched the GTA V trailer on my 360 the other day. Could’ve sworn there was a windows logo at the end..
Typical idiots thinking they know how to use a computer! They deserve everything they get! If you download a game that hasn’t even had an official release date you deserve to get screwed over. I hope they lose everything!!
World is full of morons
Moral of the story, don’t use torrents… 🙂
Protect your PC with genuine downloads, never use torrent like sites. Grand Theft Auto 5 will available on month of March next year till then wait…
What