14 DAY TRIAL // The 2014 World Cup is just around the corner so it’s no surprise that scammers and cybercriminals are rushing to profit off the sporting event as much as they can. In addition to phishing attacks, experts have also spotted a World Cup-themed 419 (or Nigerian) scam.
According to Malwarebytes, the emails inform recipients that they’ve won millions and two tickets to the opening match.
The emails read something like this:
“We wish to inform you that your email address was generated during the announcement of the Brazil 2014 world cup kick-off days and time for the world cup finals in Brazil and won GBP3000.000.00,Three Million Pounds CASH plus 2 tickets to watch the opening match to take place in Sao Paulo on June 12 2014 at 5pm local time and the final, on July 13 2014, at the iconic Maracana stadium (in Rio de Janeiro), at 4pm local time.
The notification was send to you because your email address is active online and your reference number is Brazil912/2014. this was in conjunction with the South African LOC Team (Local Organizing Committee) FIFA2010 and Brazilian LOC (Local Organizing Committee) Team FIFA2014.”
Potential victims are instructed to send their information to a contact person. As you might have guessed, this is only the first phase of the scheme. Once users comply with this request, they’re asked to pay some “fees” that are allegedly needed to complete the transaction.
These scammy emails are usually easy to identify because they’re written in haste, and they contain a large number of typos. In general, internauts shouldn’t trust any type of email that tells them they’ve won in a lottery.
Judging by the way these emails are written and formatted, this is the work of a group that has been around for quite some time. For instance, scam messages informing recipients that they’ve won “GBP3000.000.00” were also spotted in February 2013.
At the time, the scammers leveraged the reputation of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). In the first email, they asked for exactly the same type of information. The fact that these scammers haven’t put an end to their operations indicates that they can still trick enough people into handing over money.
And because the victims are told to transfer the money via services like Western Union, it’s difficult to track down the perpetrators. In fact, we rarely hear of individuals being prosecuted for such crimes. In the cases where they do get arrested, the scammers are usually located in countries where they’re in the reach of law enforcement authorities that focus on such crimes.