Zombie game inspires scammers to target your brains

Zombies. Whether they�re shuffling Romero types, the wisecracking �send more cops� variety or even the crumbling Fulci efforts it�s important to be prepared (no, I�m not counting the ones that run. Those are stupid).

As you can see, I�m ready for pretty much anything:







Nobody is immune to the zombie menace, however, so I thought it might be useful to let you go forth and warn friends & relatives about a new zombie scam popping up on the internet.

Dead Rising: Case Zero has just been released on XBox Live as a standalone chapter for the upcoming Dead Rising 2, and of course scammers want a tasty slice of zombie pie.




Forums and sites such as Youtube (surprise!) are filling up with posts and videos promoting various websites claiming to offer �cracks� and redeemable download codes to let you get your hands on the game for free.


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I�ve also seen a few videos claim to offer up a PC version (lies) and another one offering up a �Wii version� (more lies, these versions of the game don�t exist).

Here�s a sample:


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I took this screenshot a day or two ago; let�s make a tenuous reference to zombies and say they�re now multiplying uncontrollably, and you�ll probably have to go live in a supermarket or whatever.

Anyway. The majority of the videos seem to link to one particular website � deadrising2casezero(dot)blogspot(dot)com. Here it is:


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There�s a lot of nonsense on the site about the download being restricted to the first 2,000 users � and the �total downloads so far� indicator seems to be stuck on 354 people. Following a similar pattern to the recent DC Universe Online scam, attempting to download the program will give you some wonderful surveys to fill in.


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I�m almost certain I have more important things to worry about in the middle of a zombie apocalypse than whether or not I�m Justin Bieber�s ideal girl but oh well. Filling in one of the surveys will give you this somewhat unimpressive program on your desktop:



I say unimpressive, because it�s about as much use as slapping a zombie in the face with a wet newspaper. Just like the DC Universe fakeout, the program will �generate� about 20 or so codes that just repeat themselves endlessly.

A bit like these "free app / here's a survey" scams, perhaps.

Now if you�ll excuse me, I�m off to meet an ironic doom at the hands of some running zombies. While I�m donating my brains to the undead community, please try to avoid any and all �freebies� related to Dead Rising: Case Zero.

Christopher Boyd