A group of unidentified cybercriminals has unleashed malware targeting gamers who cheat in Call of Duty, leading to the theft of bitcoin (BTC) holdings from affected players.

The malware has already infiltrated hundreds of thousands of accounts, with the numbers steadily increasing.

According to vx-underground, a resource for information security and malware, the malware has impacted at least 561,000 Activision accounts, over 3.6 million Battlenet accounts, and more than 117,000 accounts from Elite PVPers.

Activision Blizzard, the American video game holding company behind the Call of Duty series, has acknowledged the existence of the malware and stated they are collaborating with PhantomOverlay, a provider of cheat engines and codes for the video game series. Activision Blizzard became a subsidiary of Microsoft after a $68.7 billion acquisition in 2022.

This isn't the first instance of game cheaters being targeted by exploiters. In 2018, a supposed cheat for the popular video game Fortnite was found to be malware aimed at stealing Bitcoin wallet login details. Fortnite players were targeted again in 2019, with hackers blocking access to users’ entire device data.

PhantomOverlay detected the suspicious activity initially when users reported unauthorized purchases. Other cheat providers, such as Elite PVPers, have also reported similar attacks on vx-underground in the past week.

However, while the estimated number of compromised accounts is significant, PhantomOverlay stated in a Telegram broadcast message on Wednesday that the figures might be inflated, dismissing database logins as "invalid garbage."

In a separate statement, PhantomOverlay also claimed they had some insight into the identity of the threat actors behind the malware distribution scheme.

The total amount of crypto stolen to date remains undisclosed.