When in doubt, kick it out, plus other tips for hardening your cyber-defenses against World Cup-themed phishing and other scams
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar is just about to kick off! From November 20th through December 18th, one of this year’s most important global events will attract hundreds of millions of football (or soccer if you prefer) fans from all over the world. But as we’ve seen before, online fraudsters invariably use the buzz surrounding such major events to defraud not only sports fans.
Let’s look at how scammers are kicking it up a notch in the run-up to the upcoming edition of the quadrennial tournament and how you can avoid falling foul of their ploys.
Lottery scams
In one tried-and-tested variety of scams, criminals make victims believe they won a cash prize or a ticket or hospitality package to watch a match in person. The real intention, however, is typically the same: get you to hand over your personal data or money or unwittingly download info-stealing malware into your device.
ESET researchers have detected a number of global phishing campaigns that seek to trick people into thinking that they won a lottery prize. To collect your “winnings”, it appears that you only need to fill in a few fields via a form and provide personal details, such as your full name, date of birth, and phone number.
As in the example below,…
