Fortinet finds 13,000+ FIFA World Cup websites, around 1,150 malicious
Scammers are cashing in on the FIFA World Cup hype by creating fake ticket and merch sites, betting apps, and sketchy streaming links.
According to Fortinet, over 13,000 FIFA-related websites have popped up since January; about 1,150 of them are actually malicious.
Fake social accounts and AI deepfakes
More than 1,700 fake social media accounts (mostly on Facebook and Instagram) have also been spotted.
Yogesh Jaygadkar, senior manager, threat research, at FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet's threat intelligence and research arm, points out that the huge demand for tickets and merch has made things worse.
There's even a Chinese scam targeting users in more than 13 geographies with fake platforms that steal payment info and SMS codes.
On top of that, cybercriminals are using AI to create super-personalized scams and deepfakes, making it even trickier to tell what's real online this World Cup season.