Global Surge in Qatar World Cup Cyber Fraud
8 December 2022
BrandShield Systems plc
("BrandShield," the "Company," or the "Group")
BrandShield Report Demonstrates Global Surge in Qatar World Cup Cyber Fraud
- Cybercriminals increasingly targeting individuals around world's biggest sporting event
BrandShield Systems plc (AIM: BRSD), a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions for brand oriented digital risk protection, announces new data regarding the prevalence of website, marketplace and social media fraud related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
BrandShield's in-depth report monitored websites, domain names, social media platforms and marketplaces between February and October 2022, detecting almost 10,000 domain registrations which include the terms 'FIFA', 'World Cup' or 'Qatar'. 'World Cup' and 'FIFA' were the two most popular targeted impersonations, with domain registrations increasing 252% and 137% across the period respectively.
In addition to rogue websites, BrandShield has identified a vast range of social media World Cup phishing scams. Cybercriminals are continuing to create fraudulent ticket and news pages on leading social media platforms in an attempt to deceive individuals into visiting malicious sites and revealing personal information, and BrandShield anticipates that these scams will proliferate in December.
The report also found that online marketplaces have been popular targets for cybercriminals, with trademark infringement commonplace throughout the period. Malicious actors are registering suspicious domains to pose as e-commerce platforms, alongside offering counterfeited World Cup and football themed merchandise and memorabilia to exploit consumers on these fake websites as well as on well-known e-commerce platforms.
Yoav Keren, Chief Executive Officer of BrandShield, commented:
"By posing as official websites, social media accounts, and e-commerce dealers, cybercriminals are capitalising on a significant opportunity to defraud individuals worldwide and obtain sensitive personal data. Given the global popularity of football, individuals should remain vigilant online throughout the World Cup as we expect this activity to intensify further as the tournament progresses."
Enquiries:
|
BrandShield Systems plc Yoav Keren, CEO
|
+44 (0)20 3143 8300 |
|
Spark Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser) Neil Baldwin / Andrew Emmott / James Keeshan
|
+44 (0)20 3368 3554 |
|
Shore Capital (Broker) Toby Gibbs / James Thomas (Corporate Advisory) Henry Willcocks (Corporate Broking)
|
+44 (0)20 7408 4090 |
|
Vigo Consulting (Financial Public Relations) Jeremy Garcia / Kendall Hill brandshield@vigoconsulting.com |
+44 (0)20 7390 0237 |
About BrandShield
Brandshield is a provider of cybersecurity solutions from brand protection to online threat hunting. BrandShield detects online threats and takes them down. The Company's client base is a growing list of organisations including Fortune 500 and FTSE100 companies. By utilising AI and big-data analysis, BrandShield monitors, detects, and removes online threats facing companies. These threats include social phishing, executive impersonation, fraud, brand abuse, and counterfeits.
About Reach announcements
Reach is an investor communication service aimed at assisting listed and unlisted (including AIM quoted) companies to distribute media only / non-regulatory news releases such as marketing messages, corporate and product information into the public domain. An RNS Regulatory announcement is required to be notified under the AIM Rules for Companies.
Reach is a non-regulatory news service. By using this service an issuer is confirming that the information contained within this announcement is of a non-regulatory nature. Reach announcements are identified with an orange label and the word “Reach” in the source column of the News Explorer pages of London Stock Exchange’s website so that they are distinguished from the RNS UK regulatory service. Other vendors subscribing for Reach press releases may use a different method to distinguish Reach announcements from UK regulatory news.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.
Latest directors dealings
- 54 minutes ago Frasers Group
- 54 minutes ago Cavendish Financial
- 54 minutes ago Diaceutics
- 54 minutes ago AB Dynamics
- 14 hours ago Johnson Matthey