Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the euphoria surrounding the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany to lure you into a trap in the name of players. Among the top 10 are also 2 German footballers.
Cyber criminals are trying to use the European Championship to their advantage. (Source: katatonia82 / depositphotos.com)
All of Europe is currently coming together to celebrate the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany. Fan trains are moving through the streets of major cities and the nations are celebrating together at public viewings. But the sporting event also has its dark side, especially online. Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the euphoria to scam you.
Selling fake tickets at good prices is particularly popular. McAfee security experts have discovered that scammers particularly like to misuse the names of popular European football players in their scams.
They don’t just use these to rip you off, but also for other scams. Fake accounts on social media platforms like Instagram are also not uncommon. According to experts, the player names are often used to obtain your personal data. This puts your privacy and identity at great risk. Fans are also tricked by the supposed players into unknowingly downloading malware.
Since the Real Madrid club was particularly successful last season, five players were affected by the name misuse. But the football players of the German national team are also popular with cyber criminals. One player even leads the top ten.
The names of the following ten football players are most often used for online fraud. We have also listed the nationality of the players and their club.
- Antonio Rüdiger, Germany (Real Madrid)
- Ruben Dias, Portugal (Manchester City)
- Luka Modric, Croatia (Real Madrid)
- Jude Bellingham, England (Real Madrid)
- Manuel Neuer, Germany (Bayern Munich)
- Alvaro Morata, Spain (Atlético Madrid)
- Rodrigo, Spain (Al-Rayyan)
- Pepe, Portugal (Porto)
- Phil Foden, England (Manchester City)
- Harry Kane, England (Bayern Munich)
Methodology and protection
To find out which football names are most often misused for fraud attempts, researchers at McAfee Labs checked the three most important search engines. The names of the players were entered and the results checked for cyber threats.
The result shows that you should be particularly careful when buying tickets if the offer is too cheap and is advertised in connection with football players. On platforms like Instagram, you should also not accept conversations with supposed stars lightly and especially not give them any personal data. The chance that a real football player will write to you is incredibly low.
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