Odyssey-Themed Scams Appear Within Hours of Film’s Release
The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan has been one of the most anticipated films of the summer, and not just by cinephiles — but by scammers, too.
Threat intelligence from Malwarebytes shows that mere hours after the film’s release, scams were targeting users searching for pirated copies. Some instances involved false browser warnings popping up on piracy sites while others displayed fraudulent movie downloads that hid malware.
The researchers point out, “Neither scam relied on exploiting a software vulnerability.”
Rather, these scams deceived users into intentionally taking the next step. As the research indicates, security software cannot entirely prevent these types of threats, as browsers struggle to discern between legitimate browser messages and those rendered in a webpage’s HTML. Furthermore, antivirus is not capable of entirely defending against these threats either, as the scam executables use misleading icons and unconventional metadata, which are also present in legitimate applications.
When malvertising leverages a popular topic — such as the recent release of The Odyssey — the scam doesn’t require sophistication. All it needs is search traffic from victims interested enough to forgo caution.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
