There’s still more than a year until the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, but that doesn’t mean cybercriminals won’t use the excitement surrounding the event to scam people.
According to a statement by Kaspersky researchers, between August 15 and October 15 this year, 11,000 phishing emails were detected containing scam invitations to bid on contracts for the supply of goods or services for the World Cup. Researchers say this is a new tactic that is not typical of sports-related scams.
Other emails sent say that the recipient has been selected to participate in a sweepstakes. In both cases of scams, buyers are asked to pay a commission for participation but, as you can imagine, nothing in return.
Some of the other phishing emails contain malicious attachments. Researchers also found malicious files downloaded from the Internet. Kaspersky says it has detected a total of 625 attempts containing files named after the 2021 World Cup.
The vast majority of these contain Word documents asking users to share their personal information. Other threats include AdWare and trojans designed to collect login credentials and other data.
To avoid getting caught by phishing scams, Kaspersky says to be especially wary of spam offers that force recipients to act quickly. If an offer seems too good to be true, you can probably tell it’s not. Details such as long e-mail addresses containing oddities, grammar and spelling errors are among the important elements that you should pay attention to.
Also, legitimate companies never suddenly contact you and do not ask you to reveal personal information such as your credit card information or Social Security number.
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