Hackers were spotted taking advantage of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games by creating a fake ticketing website to steal money from watchers.
Cybersecurity researchers from Proofpoint found a fake website advertising tickets to the Olympics and claiming to be a secondary marketplace for other live sports events.
(Photo : Bryan Turner via Unsplash)
Read Also: Sonos Defends New Data-Sharing Policy Amid User Backlash
Scammers Steal Money from Olympics 2024 Watchers
The website "paris24tickets.com" poses as a secondary market with fake sales and steals victim's money. Moreover, cybersecurity researchers advised that hackers might also breach sensitive data from customers.
According to the report, the site is abusing Google Ads as it appeared as the second sponsored search result on the search engine for "Paris 2024 tickets." The experts suggested that the hackers managed to avail an ad spot on Google to make the website seem legit.
The French Gendarmerie Nationale reported that they spotted 338 fraudulent Olympics ticketing websites. Out of these, 51 sites are already closed and 140 of them are receiving formal notices from law enforcement.
Hackers Develop Fraudulent Website Ahead of Olympics 2024
The Paris Summer Olympics is just one month away from commencing. The event will open on July 26 and will end on August 11. Sports fans are now looking for different ways to book tickets for the event which are now targeted by hackers.
The spotted fraudulent Olympic websites showed that the majority of them appeared to be legit. The website design often appeared similar to other well-known and reputable ticketing sites which increased the perceived legitimacy of the site.
Aside from stealing money, experts advised that victims' personal information might be leaked and sold in the black market. Moreover, the hackers could also use the information to perform phishing attacks on the victims.
"While this specific domain should no longer be active, we expect other bad actors to take advantage of the event and create new fraudulent Olympics-related websites," Proofpoint wrote.
Interested watchers of the Olympic Games are advised to purchase their tickets through the organization's official ticketing website only.
Related Article: Olympics Reveals Plans to Utilize AI in Sports
