Account theft usually ends with someone losing a password. This one ends with hackers walking off with the entire game.

Developers behind some of Roblox’s millions of games told 404 Media that attackers persuaded them to run a single file. Then they watched their group, their game, and their Robux (in-platform currency) balance vanish into someone else’s account within hours. In several cases, Roblox support didn’t help them get the games back until a reporter called the company for comment.

From beaming to hostile takeover

Roblox attacks used to be opportunistic. “Beamers” targeted individual players to steal rare hats, limited items, and accounts, then resold them. The pattern has shifted. The new targets are developer accounts, and the prize is the game itself.

Ioannis Matziaris told 404 Media that his two 20-year-old sons spent five years building a Roblox game called The Shadow Network. In April, attackers approached one of them with a job offer and convinced him to run a particular file. It was malware. The attackers stole control of the game, the group’s Roblox account, and their Robux balance.

Another developer, Jovan Rai, received the same project-manager job pitch. This time, the attackers were impersonating Cheesy Studios, the Matziaris brothers’ company, to lend the offer credibility. The 15-year-old was earning roughly 10,000 Robux (around $38) per day from his game. He spent more than 30 days trying to recover it through Roblox support before media attention helped move the case forward.

The malware behind the theft

Developer Mohamed Kaparoza described how the attack worked. Attackers contacted him on Discord, dangled a project-manager role, and asked him to install a Python package called “robase,” which they claimed was a database tool. Shortly after installing it, he was logged out of Roblox on both his PC and his phone. His Discord account went with it, and his two-step verification settings and passkey were changed.

This is a case of session-token theft, rather than credential theft. Once an infostealer steals an authenticated browser session, attackers can often bypass security measures such as two-factor authentication (2FA) because they are reusing a session that has already been authenticated.

The technique itself isn’t new. We reported on a similar campaign in January 2025 that targeted Roblox players with offers to beta test new games. The “installer” was actually an infostealer designed to steal data, including Discord and Steam sessions, and cryptocurrency wallet information.

What developers can do

If you build Roblox games, the defensive advice is unglamorous and mostly behavioral.

• Treat unsolicited Discord job offers with caution. If a stranger asks you to install a “database tool,” a custom installer, or any file at all, do not run it.
• Developers who need to test unfamiliar software should do so in an isolated environment, such as a virtual machine, rather than on a device where they are signed in to Roblox, Discord, GitHub, or other important accounts.
• Review active Roblox sessions and signed-in devices regularly, and switch on Roblox’s Enhanced Protection features where available. They won’t stop session-stealer malware, but they can help protect against many other forms of account compromise.
• If the worst happens, document everything as early as possible. Keep records of messages, screenshots, account changes, and support requests to help with any recovery process.
• Use security software with real-time protection. Malwarebytes Premium can detect and block infostealers and other malware before they compromise your accounts.
  

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We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Account theft usually ends with someone losing a password. This one ends with hackers walking off with the entire game.

Developers behind some of Roblox’s millions of games told 404 Media that attackers persuaded them to run a single file. Then they watched their group, their game, and their Robux (in-platform currency) balance vanish into someone else’s account within hours. In several cases, Roblox support didn’t help them get the games back until a reporter called the company for comment.

From beaming to hostile takeover

Roblox attacks used to be opportunistic. “Beamers” targeted individual players to steal rare hats, limited items, and accounts, then resold them. The pattern has shifted. The new targets are developer accounts, and the prize is the game itself.

Ioannis Matziaris told 404 Media that his two 20-year-old sons spent five years building a Roblox game called The Shadow Network. In April, attackers approached one of them with a job offer and convinced him to run a particular file. It was malware. The attackers stole control of the game, the group’s Roblox account, and their Robux balance.

Another developer, Jovan Rai, received the same project-manager job pitch. This time, the attackers were impersonating Cheesy Studios, the Matziaris brothers’ company, to lend the offer credibility. The 15-year-old was earning roughly 10,000 Robux (around $38) per day from his game. He spent more than 30 days trying to recover it through Roblox support before media attention helped move the case forward.

The malware behind the theft

Developer Mohamed Kaparoza described how the attack worked. Attackers contacted him on Discord, dangled a project-manager role, and asked him to install a Python package called “robase,” which they claimed was a database tool. Shortly after installing it, he was logged out of Roblox on both his PC and his phone. His Discord account went with it, and his two-step verification settings and passkey were changed.

This is a case of session-token theft, rather than credential theft. Once an infostealer steals an authenticated browser session, attackers can often bypass security measures such as two-factor authentication (2FA) because they are reusing a session that has already been authenticated.

The technique itself isn’t new. We reported on a similar campaign in January 2025 that targeted Roblox players with offers to beta test new games. The “installer” was actually an infostealer designed to steal data, including Discord and Steam sessions, and cryptocurrency wallet information.

What developers can do

If you build Roblox games, the defensive advice is unglamorous and mostly behavioral.

• Treat unsolicited Discord job offers with caution. If a stranger asks you to install a “database tool,” a custom installer, or any file at all, do not run it.
• Developers who need to test unfamiliar software should do so in an isolated environment, such as a virtual machine, rather than on a device where they are signed in to Roblox, Discord, GitHub, or other important accounts.
• Review active Roblox sessions and signed-in devices regularly, and switch on Roblox’s Enhanced Protection features where available. They won’t stop session-stealer malware, but they can help protect against many other forms of account compromise.
• If the worst happens, document everything as early as possible. Keep records of messages, screenshots, account changes, and support requests to help with any recovery process.
• Use security software with real-time protection. Malwarebytes Premium can detect and block infostealers and other malware before they compromise your accounts.
  

---

We don’t just report on threats—we remove them

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by downloading Malwarebytes today.

Build something that doesn’t exist. Don’t collect any data while you do it. Get it wrong and the CEO could face criminal charges. That’s close to the ultimatum the UK government handed Apple and Google on June 8. The two companies have three months to introduce device-level protections blocking nudity across every smartphone and tablet sold in the UK. If they don’t, the government will legislate—including fines and, as a last resort, criminal liability for tech bosses.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the move at London Tech Week, telling the firms:

“If they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”

The policy reads cleanly. The execution doesn’t.

What’s already on your child’s phone, and what isn’t

Both companies already do something to prevent children interacting with nudes. Apple’s Communication Safety feature warns children with a Child Account when they send or receive images and videos containing nudity across Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, and other apps. It updated the feature with new functionality at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week.

Google’s Sensitive Content Warnings blur sensitive imagery in Google Messages for supervised users and signed-in unsupervised teens—though the feature covers images only, not video.

Apple will soon require people to confirm that they are over 18 in the UK and some other countries to access certain features on their phones. That will involve age assurance through government ID, payment information, or other verification methods depending on region.

These measures aren’t enough, according to the UK government. It complains that existing nudity detection isn’t applied to the camera or other apps, third-party messaging services, or search functions. So in other words, the protections miss most of the phone. The camera, WhatsApp, Signal, Safari, and the photo library all sit outside the protective bubble parents may assume already exists.

Is privacy-respecting scanning possible?

The announcement also contains a line that’s hard to reconcile with the rest of it:

“Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data.”

Adults can opt out, but only by completing age verification.

That’s a tall order. Privacy advocates argue that age verification inevitably creates new data collection risks, even when companies try to minimize the information they store. Whatever Apple and Google build, some form of record-keeping seems likely. If executives can face personal liability for non-compliance, someone has to be able to demonstrate what the system did and when.

The government’s proof that any of this is achievable rests on a single product: SafeToNet’s HarmBlock, which the Home Office calls “a proven example” of safe-by-default device protection. HarmBlock’s source code (which isn’t public) analyzes images and live streams entirely on-device.

Digital privacy groups were not happy with the announcement. Big Brother Watch pointed out that children could easily access adult-registered devices, and warned that mandatory ID checks for adults would mean “the death of anonymity and internet privacy.”

Private messaging app Signal said promises the scanning would run only on-device were “cold comfort” because wherever the system runs, its reach would ultimately be determined by government, not technology:

“Its scope will be defined by the whims and proscriptions of the government to detect nudity today and political speech tomorrow.”

Apple has been here before. In 2021, it announced a separate plan to detect known child sexual abuse imagery on devices by matching image hashes against a database of known material, and quietly shelved it after sustained backlash from privacy advocates.

What families can do today

September will end in voluntary compliance or hurried legislation. Either way, none of that changes what’s on your child’s phone right now. Today, the messaging channels most heavily used by teenagers aren’t protected. Many grooming and sextortion cases begin on apps that operate outside the operating system’s built-in safety features. Parents and kids can take extra steps for protection:

• Turn on Communication Safety on iPhones with a Child Account, and Sensitive Content Warnings on supervised Android Messages. They might only blunt the problem at one narrow point, but it’s better than nothing.
• Talk to your kids about coerced sharing. The Internet Watch Foundation reported that 91% of reports it assessed in 2024 contained self-generated content submitted by children themselves. Children are often coerced into sending explicit material to abusers online. The Internet Watch Foundation has a list of resources for people who are being coerced into sending intimate images online.
• Cover the basics that outlive any policy: put unique passwords on all accounts, and add multi-factor authentication.
• Be careful when sharing images of children you know online. Increasingly, criminals can use non-explicit images to create sexual content using AI that can in turn be used for extortion.

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Build something that doesn’t exist. Don’t collect any data while you do it. Get it wrong and the CEO could face criminal charges. That’s close to the ultimatum the UK government handed Apple and Google on June 8. The two companies have three months to introduce device-level protections blocking nudity across every smartphone and tablet sold in the UK. If they don’t, the government will legislate—including fines and, as a last resort, criminal liability for tech bosses.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the move at London Tech Week, telling the firms:

“If they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”

The policy reads cleanly. The execution doesn’t.

What’s already on your child’s phone, and what isn’t

Both companies already do something to prevent children interacting with nudes. Apple’s Communication Safety feature warns children with a Child Account when they send or receive images and videos containing nudity across Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, and other apps. It updated the feature with new functionality at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week.

Google’s Sensitive Content Warnings blur sensitive imagery in Google Messages for supervised users and signed-in unsupervised teens—though the feature covers images only, not video.

Apple will soon require people to confirm that they are over 18 in the UK and some other countries to access certain features on their phones. That will involve age assurance through government ID, payment information, or other verification methods depending on region.

These measures aren’t enough, according to the UK government. It complains that existing nudity detection isn’t applied to the camera or other apps, third-party messaging services, or search functions. So in other words, the protections miss most of the phone. The camera, WhatsApp, Signal, Safari, and the photo library all sit outside the protective bubble parents may assume already exists.

Is privacy-respecting scanning possible?

The announcement also contains a line that’s hard to reconcile with the rest of it:

“Companies must introduce these measures without threatening privacy or collecting any data.”

Adults can opt out, but only by completing age verification.

That’s a tall order. Privacy advocates argue that age verification inevitably creates new data collection risks, even when companies try to minimize the information they store. Whatever Apple and Google build, some form of record-keeping seems likely. If executives can face personal liability for non-compliance, someone has to be able to demonstrate what the system did and when.

The government’s proof that any of this is achievable rests on a single product: SafeToNet’s HarmBlock, which the Home Office calls “a proven example” of safe-by-default device protection. HarmBlock’s source code (which isn’t public) analyzes images and live streams entirely on-device.

Digital privacy groups were not happy with the announcement. Big Brother Watch pointed out that children could easily access adult-registered devices, and warned that mandatory ID checks for adults would mean “the death of anonymity and internet privacy.”

Private messaging app Signal said promises the scanning would run only on-device were “cold comfort” because wherever the system runs, its reach would ultimately be determined by government, not technology:

“Its scope will be defined by the whims and proscriptions of the government to detect nudity today and political speech tomorrow.”

Apple has been here before. In 2021, it announced a separate plan to detect known child sexual abuse imagery on devices by matching image hashes against a database of known material, and quietly shelved it after sustained backlash from privacy advocates.

What families can do today

September will end in voluntary compliance or hurried legislation. Either way, none of that changes what’s on your child’s phone right now. Today, the messaging channels most heavily used by teenagers aren’t protected. Many grooming and sextortion cases begin on apps that operate outside the operating system’s built-in safety features. Parents and kids can take extra steps for protection:

• Turn on Communication Safety on iPhones with a Child Account, and Sensitive Content Warnings on supervised Android Messages. They might only blunt the problem at one narrow point, but it’s better than nothing.
• Talk to your kids about coerced sharing. The Internet Watch Foundation reported that 91% of reports it assessed in 2024 contained self-generated content submitted by children themselves. Children are often coerced into sending explicit material to abusers online. The Internet Watch Foundation has a list of resources for people who are being coerced into sending intimate images online.
• Cover the basics that outlive any policy: put unique passwords on all accounts, and add multi-factor authentication.
• Be careful when sharing images of children you know online. Increasingly, criminals can use non-explicit images to create sexual content using AI that can in turn be used for extortion.

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