Quick Heal warns soccer fans of FIFA-related malware

Anti-virus firm says malware artists targetting soccer fans through fresh wave of virus attacks

As sports fans across the world get into the groove of FIFA World Cup 2014, information technology (IT) security solutions firm Quick Heal Technologies today said malware artists are webbing plans to turn soccer fans into victims through a fresh wave of virus attacks.

"The company (Quick Heal) has already traced complaints of people duped in name of FIFA bookings and other information to fake websites," the company said in a release today. "They warn of threat of virus such as malware and scams coming your way to attack your system by spurious websites and spam mails."

As many as eight to nine per cent of the complaint calls received by the company at its call centers have been regarding the malware virus.

"We detected some fake websites in our research and division center and discovered that FIFA has become a platform to spread virus attacks," said Sanjay Katkar, chief technology officer at Quick Heal. The primary targets of attackers are fans who are traveling to Brazil or are searching for tickets, hotel reservations, and other information about World Cup 2014 online, Quick Heal said.

While scammers can attract fans on social networking websites, Quick Heal said, another target group for the attackers are followers of campaigns and promotional events surrounding the World Cup.

"In most cases, fans receive emails containing links to websites containing the 'free' ticket, or simply an attachment of the ticket. Clicking these links will either redirect them to a phishing website or websites that will drop a malware infection in the user's computer," Quick Heal said. "Downloading any of these attachments makes this process even easier."