14 DAY TRIAL // Experts have often warned Internet users to beware of streaming sites that offer access to popular movies. Such websites should be even more suspicious if they claim to offer access to movies before they’re released in theaters.
Researchers from Trend Micro have analyzed a number of fake streaming sites and found that “Man of Steel” is the title that’s most exploited by scammers (24%).
“Man of Steel” is followed by “Fast and Furious 6” (16%) and “Iron Man 3” (15%). Other titles used on these fake streaming sites are “Monsters University,” “World War Z” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness.”
As far as the hosting platforms are concerned, most scammy sites are hosted on Tumblr, Blogger and WordPress.
So what do the scammers get out of it? Before coming to realize that they’re not going to see the promised movie, victims are taken through a labyrinth of surveys and advertisements, all of which help the crooks in making a profit.
According to the figures obtained by Trend Micro, each of the fake streaming sites have been visited by a large number of users (see graph).