Photographs: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
World Cup fans everywhere should watch out for free ticket scams, news service scams, and online streaming scams.
With the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil set to make it huge online, scammers have kicked off efforts to target fans of the international soccer event.
Symantec has already identified several email scams and we expect to see attempts to target fans on social networks.
Free tickets to the 2014 World Cup
The most common scam around the World Cup involves free tickets.
After all, what fan would not want an all-expenses paid trip to Brazil?
Scammers know a dream come true is hard to pass up and circulate emails promising everything imaginable.
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Courtesy: Symantec
FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Symantec
Emails Symantec has identified in circulation contain a malicious zip file. Inside the zip file is an executable which, if executed, will allow your computer to be taken over by a remote administration tool (RAT) known as DarkComet.
Symantec protects customers against this malware with a Backdoor.Breut detection.
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FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
World Cup news and highlights
Besides free ticket enticements, news and highlight reels about World Cup teams and players can also be used to entice users to open up malicious attachments or click on malicious links.
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FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Symantec
Emails are currently circulating about Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, a young star player with the Brazilian national team. The email contains a malicious word document that exploits a known vulnerability in Microsoft Word.
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FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Interest in players like Neymar and others like Argentinian national star Lionel Messi are used as the bait by scammers targeting victims, whether through email or social networking services.
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FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Sergio Perez/Reuters
Free online streams of World Cup matches
As we have observed in the past, once the World Cup begins, there will be scams circulating on social networks that claim to offer free live stream of various matches, especially the final games.
These scams may ask you to fill out a survey or download and install software before you can unlock access to the live stream. Be skeptical -- these enticements are just tricks to put money into the pockets of the scammers.
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FIFA World Cup Scams: Don't fall for them
Photographs: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Tips to keep a 'clean sheet' against scammers:
- Remember that free stuff is never free. If you receive an email or a link on a social network offering free tickets to the World Cup, recognise that it is most likely a scam
- If you are interested in what is happening with your favourite World Cup teams or players, please visit the official news websites (Follow all the Fifa World Cup 2014 action here) for information and avoid randomly found or unknown sources
- Looking to watch the World Cup games online? ESPN will offer live streams for subscribers in the United States and the BBC has streaming for the UK. Check your local service providers to see where and when you can catch World Cup games online
- Be sure to have applied all the latest patches and security updates for your operating system and software applications. An up-to-date system is less vulnerable
- Add extra safety with anti-virus protection
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