FIFA World Cup Spam Rises 27%

Symantec, an Internet security firm, states that spam based on the FIFA 2010 World Cup has surged by almost 27%. Along with others, Symantec has started cautioning users against an increase in spam based on the coming World Cup in South Africa.

The firm has cautioned users that they can get a variety of spam, which includes offers of fake tickets, attached malware in forged highlights videos and fake FIFA product offers.

Some of the most common phrases spotted in these forged spam messages are "FIFA 2010", "2010 FIFA", "Football World Cup", and "FIFA World Cup". Another example of spam messages which seem to have come from the FIFA, soccer's governing body, with merchandise offers.

Symantec security response lead Samir Patil wrote that they first saw the FIFA-based scams in 2005 when South Africa had been declared as the 2010 host country. However, during the past few months, the level of spam has tremendously increased, as per the reports by SMARTOFFICE on June 3, 2010.

With the huge excitement for the event, Symantec anticipates that the trend will go on through out the tournament starting on June 11, 2010 and end on July 11, 2010.

Patil also added that quite expectedly 419 scam messages appeared as crucial contributors. As the World Cup has just few day to kick off, spam volumes are expected to rise.

Further, the security experts state that themed based events at the World Cup, search engine manipulation made to lure users into searching for video clips and news towards scareware are also expected to rise, as per the reports by PC1NEWS.COM on June 2, 2010.

The FIFA officials said that presently people should be very alert and stay away from the FIFA-based cyber attacks.

In addition, the security experts recommend users not to click on unfamiliar and unsolicited links. Users should not click on unknown attachments even if they claim to have come from the FIFA World Cup organizers. Lastly, users should use updated security software and install all security patches.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 6/12/2010