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'Counter-Strike' player tricks cheaters into getting banned

Thousands of 'CS: Global Offensive' players unwittingly downloaded hacks that triggered Steam's ban hammer.

Cheating has plagued the various incarnations of Counter-Strike practically since its servers went online in 1999 and one resourceful Redditor has had enough. User AndroidL created a trio of fake hacks for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that promised everything from unlimited ammo and health to some exotic viewing angles that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Except instead of those exploits, the some 5,500 folks who downloaded them got a hell of a surprise: unwanted attention from Valve's Anti Cheat system on Steam.

Even better is that AndroidL took a handful of screenshots of the hackers complaining about their accounts being marked as untrustworthy and later banned, or banned immediately after playing with the hacks installed. The schadenfreude is real here, folks. If you'd like to join in, the Reddit thread is rife with folks having a good chuckle at the lack of self-awareness of the hackers who complain about their accounts being targeted because they cheated, too.

The reality, though, is that thousands of banned accounts are basically a drop in the bucket. To that end, AndroidL has a message: "I'll look into doing this sort of thing again." Consider yourself warned, Counter-Strike ne'er-do-wells.