Resident Evil Village Fans Warned About Early Access Scam
As Capcom prepares to open up the doors to Castle Dimitrescu and pull Ethan Winters back into the zombie-infested world of the Umbrella Corporation, all eyes are on Resident Evil Village as what could be one of the year's biggest horror games - if not one of 2021's biggest games in general. After the recent release of Village's Maiden demo to tease what's on the way, we've got a taste for blood. It's safe to say, we're ravenous.
Although Resident Evil Village doesn't release until May 7, there's a sneaky scam that's doing the rounds to try and trick fans into thinking they'll be able to play early. Considering the hype surrounding the upcoming release of the eighth main Resident Evil game, it's no surprise scammers are capitalising on this for their own game. Capcom is also aware of the problem and has waded into the situation to warn fans to watch out for the Resident Evil Village scam.
What is the Resident Evil scam?
When reports of an early access email scam started doing the rounds online, Capcom released an official statement to IGN. The statement reads as follows: "We’re sending this message as we’ve been made aware that there are currently emails circulating that pretend to contain 'Early Access invitations' to Resident Evil Village. The sender address is being displayed as 'no-reply(at)capcom(dot)com'.
"We want to inform you that these messages are NOT from Capcom and appear to be phishing attempts by an unauthorized third party. If you have received such a message, please DO NOT download any files or reply, and delete the message immediately. If you are unsure of the authenticity of correspondence from Capcom, please contact us directly to verify".
With the official Village release just around the corner, it sounds like scammers are making the most of our excitement. Considering 2017's Resident Evil 7 was heralded as a return to form, there are high expectations that its sequel will perform just as well (if not better).
On the official Village front, we know a second demo is on the way in the run-up to its release. While Maiden was only available on PlayStation 5, the next demo for other consoles is due for release "soon". The Maiden demo was only a brief tour of the Resident Evil 4-inspired backdrop and featured a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Lady Dimitrescu. Some were disappointed that it was a simple survival horror that didn't include any combat. With this in mind, it means players have been lured in by the tempting offer of early access. Hopefully, Capcom has managed to prevent anyone else from being scammed.
This isn't the first time Capcom has been caught in a breach and potential phishing scam. Last November, the company was struck by a cyberattack that revealed an upcoming release schedule and approximately 350,000 items of customer and personal data. Early access scams are nothing new, with Ubisoft recently being struck by a similar incident where hackers claimed they could offer a sneak peek at Far Cry 6. The troubled CD Projekt Red also faced the same before Cyberpunk 2077 released. Basically, unless it's Lady D herself is offering early access to Resident Evil Village, you should watch out.
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