On Sunday, researchers of cybersecurity identified more than 30 fraud ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ social media profiles and websites.
They were disguised as official movie accounts of Star Wars, which are giving away free copies of the latest film in the franchise while collecting user’s data.
Kaspersky, a cybersecurity firm, detected 285,103 attempts to infect 37,772 users trying to watch movies of the popular space-opera series, purporting a 10% rise compared to last year.
The actual number of these false official websites may be much higher, which are collecting credit card details of the unwary users, under the claim of compulsory registration on the portal.
A security researcher at Kaspersky, Tatiana Sidorina, said, “As intruders manage to push malicious content and websites up in the search results, fans should be cautious at all times. We suggest users not to fall for such scams and instead enjoy the end of the saga on the big screen.“
Cybercriminals frequently use popular movies as a lure to distribute mStar Warsalware, and the latest films are no exception. Furthermore, for promoting these fraudulent websites, cybercriminals also set up Twitter and other social media accounts, where they distribute links to the content.
Security researchers said, “Linked with malicious files shared on torrents, brings the criminals results. Till now, 83 users have been affected by 65 malicious files concealed as copies of the upcoming movies.“
The Kaspersky team cautioned, “users have to first look at the download file extension even if it is a legitimate or trusted source. The file should have an .mkv, .avi, or .mp4 extension, among other video formats, but definitely not .exe.“
The cybersecurity firm continued, “affirm that the website is genuine, by checking twice the format of the URL, the spelling of the company name, reading reviews about it, and checking the domain registration data before starting to download.“
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