As the final season of Game of Thrones arrives, the bad guys have leveraged this occasion to trick GoT fans worldwide. Researchers have found a new wave of Game of Thrones phishing scams where the attackers employ every possible strategy to look legit.
Game of Thrones Phishing Scams Spotted
Researchers from Checkpoint have noticed another wave of phishing scams in the wild. These scams exploit the popularity of the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’ to trick users.
As stated in their blog post, Checkpoint researchers have discovered two different types of websites related to the brand Game of Thrones. Checkpoint categorized these websites on the basis of their intention.
“The websites we observed using the Game of Thrones brand could be split into two main categories- Legitimate or fraudulent websites.”
While the legitimate ones include fan pages, online shopping stores, and gaming sites, the other category includes sites driving Game of Thrones phishing scams. As explained by CheckpointCheckpoint,
“These fraudulent websites mostly include sites requesting personal information for marketing opportunities, and fake streaming sites, requesting the user to download a browser add-on and provide personal information, while no streaming content is displayed at the end of the process.”
One such campaign involves a seemingly legit competition website (gameofthronesratings[.]com) for GoT fans. However, it actually aims to simply collect email addresses and phone numbers for possible spamming activity in the future. Likewise, another website (gameofthronesofficalshop[.]com) boasts itself as an official Game of Thrones store. This website tricks the users into forfeiting their payment card details.
The researchers also noticed a potentially malicious website (gameofthrones\.pro) alongside a bulk of fraud sites. They have shared the list of such websites in their blog.
Staying Protected From Phishing Scams
The scammer never miss a chance to trick internet users from malware attacks, such attackers have plenty of bad intentions for which phishing attacks are normally facilitated. Despite being well-known, phishing scams and campaigns exist in a huge variety of different forms. Thus, it becomes extremely difficult for some to defend against. Users should ensure that they are wary of phishing threats.