World Cup Spam Increasing Says Symantec
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Symantec has reported that spam related to the FIFA 2010 World Cup has risen by around 27 per cent.The company has identified numerous scams, phishing and malicious attachment spam related to this sporting event. It found that certain obvious words such as “FIFA 2010”, “2010 FIFA”, “Football World Cup”, and “FIFA World Cup” were being used in various parts of the e-mail (headers, body or obfuscation text).

Online users can expect to receive many variations of spam types, with offers of fake game tickets, malware distribution via fake videos purportedly showing highlights of the games and fake FIFA product offers.

Symantec’s Samir Patil said, “We first observed Fifa-related scams way back in 2005 when South Africa was announced as the 2010 FIFA World Cup host country. However, the message volume during the last couple of months has shot up.”

“Not surprisingly, 419-scam messages stand out as major contributors and with kick-off literally around the corner, we expect all spam volumes related to the World Cup to grow,” added Patil.