False shop pages for Helldivers 2 and Palworld are increasingly appearing on Steam, which even use the names of the real developers.
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Scammers create fake Steam pages with developer names
What are these fake versions? There were fake versions of both Helldivers 2 and Palworld on Steam. The fraudsters designed Steam pages with the images, text and videos of the original games, even gave themselves the corresponding names of the publishers and developers, and then offered their titles at a reduced price.
For example, the Steam page of a game called “Stolen Mushrooms” was renamed “Palworld” and listed as the publisher “Pocketpair”. The scammers quoted the price as $49.99, although this was “reduced” to $2.49.
A screenshot of the fake Palworld was shared on Reddit and subsequently reported by players as a scam on Steam. The Steam page for “Stolen Mushrooms” is no longer available, but you can still view the history of changes to the page on SteamDB.
There are several fake versions of Arrowhead’s co-op shooter “Helldivers 2” on Steam. Here too, the fraudsters gave the names of the developers and publishers and embellished their fake with the content of the real site.
The two fake “Helldivers 2” shop pages still exist, but Steam has already taken the first step and stopped sales. At this point we deliberately refrain from distributing links to the wrong versions. However, you can see a screenshot of the “games” on Reddit:
How to spot scammers on Steam
You can buy the real games here: Before we show you what you can look out for to distinguish the real games from the scam sites, we will give you the right Steam sites to hand. Here you can buy Palworld and Helldivers 2 without hesitation.
What should you pay attention to to protect yourself from scammers on Steam? Since the scammers forge the names of the publishers and developers, you have to take a closer look at the respective Steam pages. There are a few clues that will show you which Steam page is the real one.
For example, pay attention to:
A new, fake Steam page should have had significantly fewer user reviews than the original. For Helldivers 2 there are a total of 159,487 and for Palworld 235,927 (as of March 1, 2024). In the case of Helldivers 2, the fake Steam pages only have 44 and 16 reviews.
In addition, the fake versions of Helldivers 2 and Palworld have a release date of November 4, 2023. However, the real Helldivers 2 was released on February 8, 2024, and the real Palworld was released on January 19, 2024.
On top of that, you will only be shown the real game on Steam if your friends are playing it. So if you know someone who plays Helldivers 2, they should be there. However, if you’re unsure, discuss this with your Steam friends to make sure they didn’t buy the scam.
Other games such as Escape from Tarkov are also affected
Even if you can’t currently buy the wrong versions of Palworld and Helldivers 2 because Steam has already reacted, you should be careful when buying games on Steam at the moment. During our research, for example, we came across a fake page for the extraction shooter Escape from Tarkov through Reddit.
In the case of Escape from Tarkov, Steam also reacted within a very short time, but here too the name of the real developer was given on the fake Steam page.
Escape from Tarkov is not available on Steam, but only via the developer studio Battlestate Games’ own launcher: How can I play Escape from Tarkov and where can I buy it?