Crypto scammers are targeting the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is a cricket competition that many fans from across the world watch. In particular, they opted for an IPL team to pump a given fake Solana-based token.
This attack brings out the worrying trend whereby cybersquatters exploit the band loyalty of followers of particular sports teams. The event is a good lesson to both fans and organizations to tread cautiously on claims to be associated with an official online page of an organization.
Some fraudsters got access to the official X account of the IPL team and started bonafide selling a Solana-based token. The supporters of the team were urged to buy what was marketed as a legitimate cryptocurrency with links to Solana – one of the most rapidly developing blockchains. They posted fake messages with hyperlinks which when clicked took the users to believable-looking websites.
Unfortunately, while many fans decided to rely on the credibility of the official IPL team’s account, they were scammed. This particular case is one more example that demonstrates that even sports organizations with good reputations can potentially fall for cyberattacks. That specific team immediately deleted the fake posts as soon as they learnt of the security compromise. However, by that time, several of the followers had fallen victim and lost their money through the scam.
The IPL team later tendered an apology and advised their fans more especially the new generation to be careful with such promotion offers that sound all too good to be true. They also made a public commitment to their fans that they are doing everything to ensure that they increase the security of their social accounts by engaging expert hackers.
This comes as a shock to many, especially after the scandal that involved IPL back in the summer. In recent times, sports teams and associations globally are not left in the glimpse of crypto scammers, most of them who have benefited immensely from the digital currency. Given the fact that these accounts have numerous followers and significant impact they are considered as attractive targets for advertising scams.
For example, in 2021, the official page of FC Barcelona in the Twitter social network was attacked. The hackers subsequently used the account to post a scam involving free tokens with fans being tricked into believing in the offers in an ICO giveaway. Such events have also happened in the NFL: the official account of the Kansas City Chiefs posted a message, which was actually an advertisement for the fake cryptocurrency designed to make football fans send money.
The bad actors have also targeted such organizations as the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In the Tokyo Olympics of the year 2020, the scammers especially active on social media took advantage of the attention that the games received, tricking people into believing that bitcoin they received was free. As has always been the case with such scams, identity thieves compromise the official social media profiles, endorse fake tokens, and entice their followers since these seem legitimate promotions to those followers.
Preventing IPL Betting Like Scams
As it became clear that various sports teams have fallen victim to crypto scams, it is important to know what can be done to avoid such situations. Here are a few steps fans and organizations can take to protect themselves:Here are a few steps fans and organizations can take to protect themselves:
Verify Promotions: Users should never trust any advertisement that they come across on social media about any cryptocurrency. Check whether the organization or the team has placed the link to the promotion in other official platforms, for instance, the official website.
Be Wary of Giveaways: It is also important to point out that the majority of live sports teams and sports associations today are not involved in promotions such as giving away tokens on social media platforms. Even today people do not analyze the information they are being provided with and whenever you come across something that looks quite too good to be true it normally is.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication: It is therefore important for teams and organizations to make sure that they turn on two-factor authentications on their social media accounts to reduce the risks and cases of accessing by other people.
Report Suspicious Activity: In case of any unverified activity or any unauthorized crypto promotions, please feel free to report the same to the platform/official team urgently.8
Cryptocurrency scams are already on the rise, and a recent hack of an IPL team’s social media account to promote a fake Solana token is a latest example.
