Halo: Reach - beware of scams

Security researchers have spotted several scams surrounding the new Xbox 360 game Halo: Reach, released last week.

Some of the scams are being pushed by unscrupulous marketers that want you to fill in surveys to earn them cash, but others have more sinister consequences, experts warned.

Christopher Boyd of GFI Software, writing on the Sunbelt Blog, warned players looking for armour upgrades and the like to avoid 'free generator' websites.

"Many of these sites lurk on free blog hosting, advertised via YouTube. Regardless of how convincing the site looks, or whether the YouTube clip has lots of comments saying 'Thanks' for the download (those comments are fake) all you'll get for the time wasted on sites such as these will be a fake application that doesn't do anything and lots of surveys to fill in," said Boyd.

Boyd warned that other Halo: Reach-related scams could lead to a malware infection.

"Something else gamers should be wary of is stumbling onto infected sites that through accident or design (in the form of Blackhat SEO) are touting all manner of malware," he said.

Players eager to earn higher scores should also be wary, said Boyd. The temptation to buy high-level profiles or give control of your account to a stranger to let them increase your score could lead to more trouble.

"Many scammers phish accounts, mod them to artificially increase the Gamerscore then sell them on. If your new account gets busted, too bad - both your cash and your account are gone," Boyd said.

Microsoft last week admitted that some players of Halo: Reach were having trouble playing the game on certain consoles due to disc read errors.