The Eurogamer’s cybersecurity experts have recently detected a new game (published on Steam gaming platform) accused of mining cryptocurrency without user consent.

The game is called Abstractism and presents itself as a minimalist platformer title. Multiple players have left negative reviews with screenshots showing evidence the game installs a Trojan virus disguised as a steam.exe process along with malware under the name "abstractism launcher". According to the Eurogamer’s report the viruses are likely installing cryptocurrency mining software, which presents a huge risk for the players.

The cryptocurrency mining malwares are known to damage computer performance, increase electricity bills, and even infect cloud infrastructure. Moreover, they are very difficult to detect, even by using modern, up-to-date anti-malware software. One of the clearest signs that the computer has been infected, and is being used for crypto mining is the increased use of its CPU and GPU.

The Eurogamer representative has contacted Abstractism's developer for comment. The creator of the game attempted to explain that the increase of CPU and graphics processing power is normal, and only occurs when players are using high graphics settings. In his next words, the game’s developer even encourages the players to “keep the game running for extended periods to receive rarer item drops”.

It is clear that this is a tell-tale sign of cryptocurrency mining scam, which gives cybercriminals the time to keep on collecting the cryptomoney without anyone’s knowledge.