In fact, $45,000 worth of Beyoncé concert tickets have already been fraudulently sold to fans.
Police in the UK have launched an investigation into a batch of fake tickets for Beyonce's shows in Manchester earlier this month. Across two concerts it is believed that con artists sold more than 140 tickets worth $160 each. Victims were none the wiser until they arrived at the venue for the show, only to be told that their tickets were invalid.
David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said that he believes that this type of con will be a common occurrence this summer, especially in relation to World Cup tickets, which kicks off this summer in Brazil.
“Today there are so many fake ticket sites willing to manipulate unsuspecting people, especially where big concerts and sporting events are concerned,” he said, in a note to Infosecurity. “In cases where tickets sell out in the first couple of minutes or hours, people can often see an offer and jump at the chance of getting their hands on hot tickets without considering that it might not be as genuine as they think.”
The Brazil World Cup has already drawn the attention of phishers, who are using mails to lure victims into downloading malware on the promise of scoring tickets. In January, Kaspersky detected a mailing scheme using fake letters sent on behalf of the site copa2014.gob.br, the official contact channel of the Brazilian government for the FIFA events. The recipient was congratulated on winning two tickets for the World Cup, but in order to print off the tickets, the user had to click the link in the message. If the user fell for the scam, a worm was executed that is used to download and launch unknown files without notification but also infects connected USB flash drives.
To make the emails appear more authentic the scammers used the World Cup logos and what appeared to be a genuine address in the in the sender field.
“They are obviously trying to cash-in on the huge interest in the event and exploit the interest of soccer fans keen to obtain match tickets online,” said Emm. “Those tempted to click end up becoming infected with malware, or being redirected to a fake website that captures their personal data – bank or credit card information. We're currently blocking between 70 and 100 fraudulent sites worldwide every day – and 40 to 50 in Brazil alone.”
Most of the attacks Kaspersky is blocking are phishing attempts. It noted that to diversify the attacks and attract more victims, Brazilian cybercriminals have in particular decided to invest their efforts to spread fake giveaways and fraudulent websites selling tickets for the games at very low prices, tickets that in fact do not exist.
Internet denizens are cautioned not to be caught off-guard by an email that looks official, or seems to be from a legitimate organization, as well as leery of anyone asking for money or requesting an unusual amount of personal information, especially bank account or credit card details. And as always, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.