Scammers capitalize on the Olympic fever by offering streaming services, giveaways and fake cyber currency

Experts from Russian multi-national cybersecurity provider Kaspersky have found multiple bogus streaming services and tickets to events that would not have fans and fake digital currency when investigating Olympics related phishing attacks.

A security expert at the firm said that cybercriminals always use major sporting events as bait to conduct their attacks. Even under the unusual circumstances posed by COVID, they still managed to make the most of it.

Olga Svistunova, a security expert from Kaspersky, added by saying that "For example, this year, we discovered an interesting phishing page selling an 'Olympic Games Official Token. There is no real equivalent of such a thing, that means that cybercriminals are not only faking already existing baits but also coming up with their new sophisticated ideas," reports TechRepublic.

Cybercriminals have become creative with their methods and take advantage of people's emotional connection to athletes from their respective countries by starting funds for these athletes.

Gullible people fall for that trap and donate, not knowing that the scammers are the ones profiting and not the athlete. These scammers also offer a 'free' streaming service, where the person is asked to register and then watch for free.

The moment you enter your credentials, the site injects malware into your system while also stealing your credentials to either take advantage of or sell it on the dark web.

"Once a user enters their credentials, they might be redirected to a page that distributes different malicious files," said sources from Kaspersky, reports TechRepublic.

The scammers also run gifting campaigns where they claim to give you gifts like a free TV for watching the games and answering questions. The biggest of them all would be websites disguised as official websites of the IOC and the Olympics, making it look authentic.

In these trying times for both athletes and people around, going through something like this would be devastating hence it is of utmost importance to look at authentic sources, and recheck before inserting your credentials.

Here are the details of the official broadcast partners for the Tokyo Olympics.

You can catch all the action LIVE in Sony Sports Network channels in India.

Japan: The Japan Consortium

USA: NBC Universal

UK: BBC, Eurosport

China: CCTV

Australia: Seven Network

Germany: ARD-ZDF

Brazil: Grupo Globo, Bandsports

Spain: RTVE

Italy: RAI

France: Eurosport

South Africa: SABC