Come popular events, scamsters are ever ready to pull off a heist against gullible victims. The Olympic Games in London is no different.
The scams that have already surfaced, barely a few days into the competition are:
• Websites promising live streams of the event
• Online viewing packages
• Offering tickets to view the game
Considering the fact that the International Olympic Council has granted exclusive rights to 33 broadcasters around the world for coverage of the games, such offers are pure scams.
Naturally, such sites require payment by credit card or Pay Pal. Once that happens, it is anybody’s guess as to what the website owners would do with such a data haul. Even without getting their hands on credit card information, these fake websites could harvest other user data that would become a launching pad to send targeted spam, breach passwords and commit other nefarious acts. Websites offering free live streams, for instance, redirect to another website which asks for an email address to activate the live stream. This is if the redirection does not directly download malware such as a Blackhole exploit kit.
In the meantime, time tested scams such as emails announcing that the recipient has won tickets to see Olympic events or some other “Olympic lottery” and asking for money or credit card information to courier the prize across has been doing the rounds for months.
An innovative variant of this scam that has spread this time round is an e-mail offering victims a chance to sign up for temporary jobs during the Games. Such emails impersonate corporations such as Coca-Cola, Nokia and Ford Motor. Such emails ask for personal information, aiming at identity theft.
In all, Olympic organizers have already detected 124 scams connected to the games and more will surely unfold in the coming weeks.
JUL
