Now, cyber criminals target Olympics enthusiasts

Ahead of the London 2012 Olympics opening event, a new breed of cyber criminals are targeting users by using various prizes and freebies as baits.

“This new breed of cyber criminals surely have become more polished. They are sending out mails that look genuine. In essence, they are pulling out images from the official Olympic website and sending them in mails, making the mails look authentic. They first aim at grabbing the users’ attention and then extracting details from them. Users need to resist their urge to open these mails, especially if they come with attachments,” explained product manager of McAfee Labs Vinoo  Thomas.

Further, there are many spammers, who are creating fake websites selling Olympic related merchandise. “Often people order and pay online for this merchandise, but eventually their goods never get delivered,” Thomas added.

Some spammers are also offering ‘all expenses paid trip to London to attend the opening ceremony’.

This was the spam attack, Govind R (name changed on request), an advertiser from Bangalore fell for.

 “I am generally very cautious. This email looked perfect, without any grammatical errors and my active PC antivirus software too didn’t detect any malicious activity. I thought it was safe and after filling out a form with all my details, within five seconds I got a message from my bank claiming that I had withdrawn `20,000. I was baffled and immediately blocked my account,” he said.

Country Manager, India and SAARC of Trend Micro Amit Nath explained, “These opportunists are using this global event by targeting users through emails that read ‘winning notification’. Another message asks for personal details in exchange for a prize and another that asks users to notify a specific contact person. Users who fall for any of these traps are at risk of having their information stolen or their machines infected with malware. As long as users are still falling for this trap, scammers will continue to create new spam runs using events like the London Olympics to make a quick buck.”

To be safe, the internet users are advised to refrain from clicking on malicious links and emails and from downloading an application that promises a free schedule.