I received a Discord message from a friend I know in real life, telling me about an indie game he was making and asking for feedback. Unfortunately, his account was compromised, and the game ended up causing some serious issues—like closing my Firefox browser, logging me out, changing my password, and even adding me as a family member on his account. Now I'm locked out of my own account, and it's been a hassle trying to get help from Google, which has been pretty useless. Without my YouTube channel, I would have been in deep trouble.
I'm curious if I should still be concerned about any possible malware lingering on my laptop. I've run several scans—Windows Security, Malwarebytes, and even a Windows offline scan—yet none found anything suspicious. I've checked startup apps and all installed applications too. Am I safe to get my laptop back online now, or do these hacked instances usually come with some additional malware? I'd prefer not to do a full reset since I have so much stuff on there. Just looking for some solid advice here!
3 Answers
It sounds like the 'game' triggered a session hijack, which is pretty common. They probably stole your login cookies and logged you out without installing any persistent malware. The clean results from your scans suggest that your system is likely okay. Just to be safe, make sure to revoke any active sessions, change your passwords from a different device, enable two-factor authentication (2FA), and check your browser extensions. Once you regain access to your Google account, remove that family link. If you haven’t noticed any odd processes or tasks, it’s probable that you don’t have malware, but keep an eye on your network activity for a few days.
If all your antivirus programs came up clean, that's a good sign but not a guarantee that your computer is safe. To really be cautious, you should consider wiping everything and reinstalling Windows from a USB. Here’s a handy guide: [Installing Windows 11](https://rtech.support/installations/install-11/). And please, start doing regular backups! If your laptop crashes or gets infected again, you don’t want to lose irreplaceable data.
If malware was installed, the safest option is to do a secure wipe of your PC and reinstall Windows from scratch. Scans could miss something if malware is advanced enough to bypass them. It's crucial to take your laptop offline, secure your accounts from a clean PC, and then focus on wiping the infected machine completely. Don't rely on a factory reset as that doesn't eliminate malware. Always back up important data before an incident like this, just in case!
Be wary of anyone asking you to contact them for support, sounds a bit sketchy!