Bogus Playstation emulators pack Trojan payload

Retro gaming fans are being targeted in a new con designed to infect computers with a Trojan linked to scareware scams.

Downloads posing as Playstation 2 emulators that allow games designed for Sony's console to be played on PCs instead deliver only a Trojan. Emulators offered via Appzkeygen(dot)com, for example, come packing the CodecPack-2GCash-Gen Trojan, Chris Boyd of Sunbelt software warns.

So, apart from the dubious legality of emulators, gamers who search for the software packages risk being exposed to all manner of unpleasant scams.

"In some cases, people have reported this particular attack resulting in rogue antivirus appearing on the compromised system – however, during testing nothing was downloaded onto the PC," Boyd explains. "This doesn’t mean it won’t happen, of course – and you’ll still have the downloader onboard.

"Trojan-Downloader.Win32.CodecPack.2GCash.Gen has been used in everything from fake codec scams to rogue AV hijacks in previous months, and is probably going to stick around for quite some time," he added. ®