Cybercriminals are taking advantage of gamer's insatiable desire, and lack of patience, for the latest hot game in order to lead unsuspecting gamers into a well-constructed click fraud scam.
The malicious actors are finding their victims by posting YouTube videos with links that purportedly lead to Fortnite for Android, even though the game is not available on that platform. Malwarebytes analyst Nathan Collier did a quick deep dive into these scams and found the malicious links are often connected to Google searches like “How to install Fortnite on Android” or “Fortnite for Android” and finding some in YouTube ads.
Collier noted those behind these attacks do a good job making everything look legitimate during the download and install process. This is done by stealing screenshots of Fortnite from Apple so the victim is presented with what appears to be the game during every step of its installation including playing the Fortnite theme music during the download segment.
The entire process looks correct right up to the point where a screen requiring “mobile verification” appears. Once this is clicked the target is redirected to the actual Google Play store where they are told another free app must be downloaded in order to unlock Fortnite.
In fact, what has happened is a vicious circle has been started. Every time the person tries to download the non-existent Fortnite he or she is forced to download the unwanted. The malware maker is then paid for each download of the second app.
