Cybercriminals are targeting football fans scrambling
for tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament in South Africa,
warns security firmSymantec.
The firm predicts a huge rise in World Cup-related spam and
phishing attacks in the run up to the event in June and July next
year.
"Attackers will either try to compromise legitimate websites to
gain sensitive information or spam e-mail users with messages that
try to persuade users to go to illegitimate websites where their
personal information can be harvested," said Candid Wueest, senior
security researcher for Symantec.
Analysis of these types of attacks in the past has shown an
increase in themed attacks, especially related to major events.
According to Symantec's monthly spam reports, around 10% of all
spam in 2008 was fraud-related, such as those advertising false
tickets.
"As time draws near fans become increasingly likely to take
risks and purchase tickets through unauthorised channels or believe
the promises in unsolicited emails," said Wueest.
Fans not only run the risk of paying for counterfeit tickets to
matches, but this could also lead to the theft of their credit card
details, he said.
During the previous FIFA World Cup, related phishing attacks jumped
by 40%. As many as 4,615 phishing hosts per month were
discovered in 2008, up 66% over the previous year.
Guidelines to avoid World Cop online scams
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is - many
criminals use extravagant promises to lure victims into clicking
through to malicious sites and divulge personal information
- Never click on links from e-mails - links can contain viruses
or Trojans or direct users to infected websites
- Buy only from FIFA registered sellers - FIFA has a strict code
of conduct on all outlets and these are the only places fans should
look to buy ticket
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Image: Guiliano Bevilacqua/Rex
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