Cybercrime experts warn scammers will be targeting the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and NZ

Excitement is growing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from July this year, but experts warn that scammers and cybercriminal predators will be on the prowl.

Due to high demand for tickets, Australia’s Women’s World Cup opening match against Ireland has been moved to a larger stadium.

Originally scheduled to take place at Sydney’s newly built Allianz Stadium with a capacity of 42,500, the match will now take place at Stadium Australia, which can hold over 82,000 spectators.

That lawsuit is meant to attract the attention of opportunistic criminals who are also targeting the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.

Group-IB’s investigation detected more than 16,000 fraudulent domains in the run-up to the Qatar men’s final along with dozens of fake social media accounts, ads and mobile apps targeting World Cup fans and attendees.

Tyler McGee is the General Manager of Product Growth for McAfee Australia and New Zealand, a global leader in device security focused on cybersecurity.

He warned soccer fans in Australia and New Zealand that cybercriminals were using more sophisticated methods and would definitely target this year’s Women’s World Cup.

“One of the key trends last year around the men’s FIFA World Cup was that there was a huge increase in activity around these criminals who were basically trying to do a couple of things,” he said.

This year, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicking off in July, Australia is a prime target for these cybercriminals to continue what they did last year globally and in connection with these global sporting events.

‘One is to get people to buy fake tickets and just get paid to do it. Secondly, also the collection of your personal data. So they are actually looking to get as much personal information about you as they can through various means.

‘Name, address, date of birth and, if you’re dumb enough, your credit card details and, in some cases, bank details.’

“The key with these cybercriminals now is that they have no limits.”

“There are no borders, they operate locally, they target big events anywhere in the world.”

In addition to fake tickets, McGee said there were three other key methods cybercriminals will attempt to fleece Australians and New Zealanders of their money and personal information.

fake contests

Everyone loves a freebie and scammers know it. That is why they will run fake contests to collect personal information and even money from unsuspecting fans.

“What they do, they usually send via social media or directly to your email with a chance to enter a competition to win tickets to the event,” McGee said.

‘What they’re trying to do is really around phishing. They are trying to get as much information from you as possible.

“These things will ask for your date of birth, your full name, your address, and whatever information they can get to make it appear legitimate.”

McGee said it was important to follow the source of the competition and check if they were affiliated with FIFA and the World Cup before entering. ‘

“FIFA has very strict rules on who can offer or be associated with that brand and the World Cup and as such, if they don’t, that would send me some red flags and some alarm bells.”

Fake contests will often also try to appeal to your FOMO or fear of missing out by offering tight deadlines to enter or receive your prize.

This is to prevent you from thinking about the legitimacy of the contest and from doing any checks.

‘From our perspective, what we’re saying is be careful, do your homework, take a breather, sit down, look at the sky, think about whether it’s something I want to get into. Do I feel safe participating in this competition?’ McGee said.

travel scams

More than 500,000 World Cup tickets have already been sold, which means there will be a lot of people traveling to the event.

On top of that, both visitors and locals will drive across the country and across the ditch into New Zealand to watch the games, so scammers will be looking to entrap fans.

“They say we can book your flight, we can book your hotels, and we’ll get you your ticket to the event. So basically, by putting all of that together, it usually seems to be pretty cheap,” McGee said.

“It’s an ad that comes through something like social media or it can come directly to you if they already have access to your email address.

“What they are trying to do is collect as much information as possible from you and, in the base case scenario for them, have you put down some cash or some credit card details.

“What we recommend, if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is,”

streaming sites

Just because you might be happy to sit back and watch the games at home doesn’t mean you’re immune to cybercrime.

They know that millions will be looking to broadcast matches and bogus platforms and links will be set up and distributed to try to harvest your personal information.

“These sites come along and say you can watch women’s games for free, for example,” McGee said.

‘All they try to do is get you to download the app or download a link, then once you’ve downloaded it, they can hide in that malware or ransomware.

“We certainly have products that will help protect you from those types of attacks.”

In my view, the safest route if you want to stream games is to go to an official World Cup site or a streaming partner that will charge you money, but at least you know you’re getting what you paid for.