Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the event that brings together the most common cyber scams targeting sports fans

July 26 (Portaltic/EP) –

The Olympic Games (Olympic Games) The Paris events are the perfect bait for cybercriminals, who take advantage of the interest generated by the event to launch simple and convincing malicious campaigns, leaving behind a large number of victims of fraudulent attacks.

These malicious campaigns cover a wide range of scam methods and formats, from the classic sale of fake tickets to alleged gifts offered by mobile operators to tourists and visitors to France, who may find their trip very expensive if they do not take the recommended security measures.

Violations of this type have been seen for several months now and are not exclusive to the days on which the event takes place, which begins this Friday, July 26, and ends on August 11. This was stated by the event’s own organization on its website in May of this year, when it informed users that a number of people and entities were impersonating them to distribute free tickets to the opening ceremony.

Specifically, the cybercriminals claimed to be collaborating with the French National Olympic and Sports Committee to deliver tickets in exchange for a small payment that, in theory, was intended for the Shipping costs to a physical address.

Cybercriminals have therefore launched different fraud campaigns to obtain the information and money of victims, as cybercriminals have also taken advantage of the opportunity to create fake websites that pretend to be the official one.

The most common way to do this is to enter a form in which data such as name, phone number or email address is requested in order to send the ticket that is supposedly being purchased. Once a payment method is entered, such as a credit card, cybercriminals use it to access your accounts and steal everything in them.

BEYOND FRAUDULENT WEBSITES

Within the framework of this competition, different websites have also been distributed in which it is allegedly sold Official merchandisingsuch as t-shirts, uniforms, pins, caps and other accessories, all at low prices to attract users who are less aware of their security.

In addition to not receiving their orders, users endanger the privacy of their data and also leave their bank cards in the hands of cybercriminals.

It also does not go unnoticed by cybercriminals that, during the days in which the Olympic Games are taking place, Paris and other French cities that host the various sporting competitions become the meeting point for many tourists who seek to assist them.

For this reason, malicious campaigns are being carried out in which data packages and internet connection are given away, which promise to prevent these visitors from spending too much money on ‘roaming’as Kaspersky has recalled on his blog.

The cybersecurity firm has revealed that a standard telephone plan with 40 GB of internet and unlimited calls in France costs around 11 euros. Providing these services for free would cost 168 million euros, which makes the proposal of these online scammers implausible.

HOW TO AVOID THESE SCAMS

Often the best advice is to use common sense and be wary of any website or offer that seems too good to be true. The Olympics are a global competition that is only accessible to a select few and raises a lot of money, which is reason enough to know that anything related to them is usually priced high.

For this reason, you should only trust what their official website offers and not buy tickets or souvenirs related to the sporting event in sources other than official ones. The best thing in this case is to only use their site official Web. This same platform has an official resale platform, which must be the only way to buy or sell tickets to sporting events.

Being wary of gifts from strangers is another key piece of advice to avoid being a victim of a scam. If an operator offers to give you free gigabytes in exchange for giving your personal details, it is best to reject the offer.

It is also convenient to use a virtual card or ‘eCash’ with a specific spending limit when buying tickets or Olympic merchandise. It is not an infallible tool, but it can stop cybercriminals from emptying their victims’ bank accounts.

These cards are loaded from other credit or debit cards or from an account. This way, you can enter exactly the amount you are requesting for a particular product. If the website from which you are purchasing is fraudulent, the scammers will only be able to get hold of the money that is on it, without the possibility of increasing the stolen amount with the money that has been deposited in that bank account.

The Paris Olympic Games organization is aware that this event is in the sights of many cybercriminals and has a section dedicated to online security on their official website.

This indicates the steps to follow in case you have forgotten the password to access the website account or what to do if one of them has been hacked. It also explains how to react to a scam, how to identify a phishing attempt, and how to thwart a scam attempt.

The ideal in any case is to activate Two-factor authentication (2FA)which helps keep accounts and money safe, as well as reducing the consequences of being a victim of phishing. This is because, in any operation that the person who has impersonated you with another person’s data wishes to carry out, multifactor authentication can be the element that best neutralises their intentions.