The battle royale game Fortnite has continued to smash records in popularity, complete with a $1.25 billion investment for its parent company last week. Unfortunately, it’s also breaking records when it comes to scams and malware.

A new report Monday from cybersecurity firm ZeroFOX reports 53,000 malicious activity alerts in relation to the game, with 86 percent of them coming from social platforms.

The game itself is free to play and win, the latter notable because other popular games before it required players to buy additional items to win. Creator Epic Games Inc. makes its money through V-Bucks, an in-game currency that enables players to buy cosmetic items for their Fortnite character.

V-Buck generators lead the list targeted by scammers along with mobile app and YouTube video scams.

The report identified more than 4,770 fake Fortnite websites that have been set up by scammers, using words such as “Fortnite” and “free” or “gift” to trick users into handing over personal details for alleged free V-Bucks. It also identified more than 1,390 YouTube videos with combined view counts in the millions offering phony demonstrations of how to get free V-Bucks in exchange for personal information. Finally, there were fake Android Fortnite apps loaded with malware that promised free V-Bucks as well.

“With an estimated 43 million players, and growing, Fortnite is played by gamers of all ages,” the ZeroFOX researchers wrote. “While technically the age requirement to play the game is 12 years old, there have been reports of children as young as 5 or 6 years old taking part. Issues of exposure to violence and graphic images aside, a big risk of allowing children of any age to play the game? Falling victim to scams.”

Expressing concern at the risk of children falling for scams, the researchers also noted that it’s parents of Fortnite players who may also fall victim to the many Fortnite scams.

“We want to be very clear: the only place you can get V-Bucks is through the Fortnite game itself, either through direct purchase or gameplay,” the researches noted. “There is no magic coupon site or online treasure trove of free V-Bucks. Yet, that hasn’t stopped bad actors from creating fake coupon sites and ‘V-Buck generators’ to lure innocent players into sharing personal information, ranging from their Fortnite usernames and passwords to their credit card information and home addresses.”

Image: Epic Games