14 DAY TRIAL // The recently released Star Trek Into Darkness has made a lot of headlines. Similar to other highly awaited movies, the latest Star Trek is also leveraged by cybercriminals and scammers.
Experts from ThreatTrack Security, the former business unit of GFI Software, have spotted several such schemes.
One of them is trying to lure users to an ad-hosting website with Twitter messages that read “Alice Eve Seduces Chris Pine In Brand New Start Trek Into Darkness Clip.” To make it even more attractive, the #JustinBieber hashtag is added to the tweet.
On YouTube, experts have spotted several clips that contain links to websites that promise users they can “watch the movie now.” Most of these sites contain surveys that generate affiliate cash for the scammers, and some of them even ask for monthly fees.
Other scammy Star Trek-related sites are designed to push shady software onto users’ computers.
To avoid falling victim to such scams, experts recommend that you treat all “free online viewing” offers with skepticism, since in most cases, they’re not legitimate. Posts on Twitter and Facebook should also be avoided.
Additional details on how these scams work are available on the ThreatTrack blog.