Game of Thrones Phishing Scam

Viewers trying to watch the hit HBO series Game of Thrones illegally are the recent group being targeted by phishing scammers. In this case, the scammers are specifically trying to trick those who are pirating the series into thinking they are acting on behalf of HBO and it’s piracy firm, IP-Echelon. (Actual phishing email shown below)

Let’s be clear. HBO and IP-Echelon do indeed try to take down pirates, but in this case the demands are fake. The dialogue tries to catch unsuspecting downloaders of the Game of Thrones series and it is possible that the scammers are taking IP addresses from real torrent swarms. However, should this happen to you, contact the senders by calling the phone number on the alleged sender’s official website. Don’t use any information included in the notice. Also, hover over links in the messages and see where they lead. If they don’t go where you would expect, such as to an address on IP-Echelon’s or HBO’s domain, they likely are not real.

In this case, the scammers ask for a fee to make demands go away and send a notice stating, “You have 72 hours to access the settlement offer and settle online. If you fail to settle, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be and option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys.”

Popular games and other entertainment are often used as bait for phishing scams. The World Cup and Olympics are always big lures and scammers also take advantage of tragedies such as the death of a celebrity or a natural disaster. Always pay attention to email messages and ads you see while using the Internet. Adware often is used for phishing for information, but can also contain malware. The recent madness surrounding the Pokémon Go game is likely to trigger phishing as well, so be on the lookout.

Besides avoiding clicking any links that you are not 100% certain are legitimate, be sure to verify any demand notice for anything is real before sending any money.  And of course the recommended action is to not pirate copyrighted material in the first place. In that case, if you receive a demand notice you will know right away that it’s fake.