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Scammers are using a modified version of Coral Island, a farming simulation game, to fool unsuspecting players into giving up their money

• Jacob Chambers
• November 1st, 2022

Although Halloween has passed, it seems that the island agricultural simulation game Coral Island has created a social media double with an appetite for NFTs. Stairway Games, the developers of Coral Island, have drawn notice to a fraudulent account that copies the game’s logo and key art but adds a web3 cryptobro twist by claiming to be affiliated with the GameFi blockchain gaming platform. It’s no surprise that Stairway has declared a sham.

The indie farming simulation game Coral Island is set in a “slice of life” setting.
Stairway tweeted a screenshot of the spoof account along with the message “We are not an NFT game and the page below has no affiliation to Coral Island.” It’s strange that the NFT account wasn’t actively posting until recently, considering it was formed in March of 2020. It goes without saying that the NFT spoofers are situated in the Metaverse, as opposed to Indonesia, where Stairway is set in the actual world. Also, they’ve got their own Discord server, Instagram account, and a full website pretending to be Stairway.

The bogus account’s follower count has plummeted from 2500 to 222 (at the time of writing) since Stairway posted to alert people to it. Coral Island is the result of years of development by Stairway, and it was only made available for early access during the past few weeks. It’s a shame that someone would pick on such a low-key indie title. Participants in the conversation about Stairway’s tweet said they had reported the account to Twitter for impersonating. Scammers have already gone after the science fiction building game Outerverse.

Warning: @coralislandgame is the only official Coral Island game account on Twitter. The page you’re currently viewing has nothing to do with Coral Island and we are not an NFT game. Many thanks! pic.twitter.com/Aei1650McT

Date: October 31, 2022 Source: Stairway Games (@stairwaygames)

In her early access review of Coral Island last month, Alice Bee said she had a good time playing the game and appreciated the game’s convenient recyclable waste resource. Some individuals will be motivated by “the overtly ecological angle on Coral Island,” she added, “where the more you supply local goods and the cleaner you make the seabed, the higher the town’s rating gets.” But Coral Island makes it a part of the gameplay, so even if you don’t care about the ecosystem on principle, you’ll feel responsible for it because of how the game is designed.

For twenty pounds, twenty-five dollars, or twenty-five euros, early access to the actual Coral Island is available on Steam. There are no NFTs in it.