A Florida student used Steam to distribute malware-laced games that siphoned crypto from victims' wallets, netting over $200,000, and now faces several heavy charges from federal prosecutors.
Zyaire Wilkins, a 21-year-old University of West Florida student, was arrested by the FBI after allegedly hiding crypto-draining malware in Steam games such as BlockBlasters, Dashverse, and PirateFi. Notably, I reported on PirateFi back on February 17, 2025, as Steam recommended that any players of the game reinstall their operating system after it was discovered the game contained "malicious files". Many unsuspecting players who saw the titles, which seemed legitimate, had their passwords extracted and cryptocurrency wallets drained. Over 80 cryptocurrency accounts were compromised during the 22-month duration of the scam.
Trending Now: Valve confirms if Half-Life 3 will be a Steam Machine exclusiveThe scheme was meticulously executed, with the group promoting the games on Discord, Telegram, and X. Wilkins and his accomplices even used bots to target high-net-worth crypto holders. What ultimately led to his downfall? A trail of stolen Bitcoin converted into Uber Eats gift cards, which Wilkins then used to carry out purchases of food on Uber Eats. Investigators traced those transactions and orders of food back to Wilkins' home address, along with his university address.

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Wilkins faces a maximum of ten years in prison, according to the charges. With Steam being one of the largest PC gaming storefronts, this incident raises questions about how such malicious content slipped through for so long. Additionally, Valve recently confirmed it will not be shipping out any more physical Steam gift cards to retailers starting next year, and the primary reason behind that decision is to mitigate the number of Steam customers being scammed.






