Beware of World Cup ‘bait’ online scams – Don’t trust messages that you’ve ‘won’ related prizes

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Often criminals make victims believe they have won a prize money or a ticket or hospitality package to attend a game and ask for personal information or money

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar (November 20 to December 18) is all set to begin, but internet sleuths always use such big events to cheat.

International cyber security company ESET warns that fraudsters are “turning up the heat” on the internet ahead of the upcoming event. Often criminals trick victims into thinking they’ve won one Cash Prizes or one ticket or one hosting package to watch a football match. Their intent is usually the same: to get you to give them your personal information or money, or to unwittingly “download” information-stealing malware onto your device.

ESET researchers have already identified several international phishing campaigns who seek to trick people into thinking they have won a prize. All you need to do to… receive your “earnings” is to fill in a few fields on a form and provide personal information such as your name, date of birth and phone number.

Along with the announcement will be the name of a contact person who will supposedly “help” you claim your prize.

At some point, the “employee” will inform you that in order to claim your winnings you will have to pay some tax or some fees. Once the money transfer is complete, the scammers will have achieved their goals: they will have stolen your money and personal information either to move on to the next stage of the scam or to sell it to other scammers.

Another form of phishing scam involves misleading websites which are identical to the original ones. You may also be directed to them through a link you will receive from spam messages, through fake social media profiles or discussion forums. Regardless of whether these websites are exact copies of legitimate websites or not, the bottom line is that they are promoted to steal personal and financial data, login credentials and other sensitive information, or as a way to install malware on victims’ devices.

Also, many people have already reported that they have been approached via email by alleged “FIFA officials” offering tickets for sale. If you are still looking for tickets to watch any of the World Cup games, you should beware of scammers. Qatar 2022 only has digital tickets available, with the sole exception of last-minute purchases, which can only be made in person directly at two offices in Doha, Qatar. Reselling unauthorized tickets is prohibited in Qatar and the penalties can be very severe. The only way to resell and buy tickets is through the official FIFA ticket resale platform.

What you can do to protect yourself:

1. You cannot win a lottery ticket if you have not purchased a ticket. If anyone tries to convince you otherwise, it’s a scam.

2. Do not pre-pay money in order to receive a prize. Prepayment methods are a way of stealing your money.

3. Watch out for phishing attacks. Do not click on links or attachments in emails or other messages unless you are sure they are genuine, especially if the messages are from strangers and ask for your personal information.

4. Similarly, watch out for misleading websites. Pay attention to the websites you visit and always look for grammatical and spelling errors, strange URLs, lack of security certificates or other signs that something is amiss, especially if the website is asking for your money or personal information.

5. Don’t give out your personal information to anyone who asks for it – it could be misused for fraud or sold on the dark web.

6. Use two-factor authentication on all accounts, especially those that contain your sensitive information. This reduces the chances of them being compromised by hackers with stolen passwords.

7. Use reliable, multi-layered security software with anti-phishing capabilities.

RES-EMP

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