With the fifth season of popular dark adult cartoon ‘Rick and Morty’ debuting this month, bad actors are taking advantage of fans’ eagerness to watch the show, and are distributing malware to lure unsuspecting users.
Analysing files distributed from June 2020 to June 2021, Kaspersky's research team has seen that bad actors are consistently using Rick and Morty as a lure. In fact, researchers found some 350 files disguised as the popular show, which all distributed various types of malware, including exploits and sophisticated ransomware.
Kaspersky experts also found a number of phishing Web sites designed to steal viewers’ credentials. Rick and Morty fans hoping of watching new episodes of their favourite show were redirected to other resources to enter personal data.
To make the page seem legitimate, scammers showed the first few minutes of the show and then users were asked to register by entering personal data and bank card details. After some time, money was debited from the card but the episode did not continue to play.
Mikhail Sytnik, a security expert at Kaspersky, says cyber crooks are always looking for new opportunities to cash in on users' interest in sources of entertainment.
“For many years, we observed fraudsters creating fake pages offering to stream or download popular movies and shows - which are especially attractive when the piece of content has been long awaited,” he says.
When searching for a new episode of a favourite series, Sytnik says it is critical to remember the basic rules of digital hygiene. “We advise users to check the authenticity of Web sites before entering personal data and use only official Web pages to watch films, series and shows.”
In addition, Kaspersky advises users to pay attention to the extensions of files they are downloading. A video file will never have an .exe or .msi extensions.
Share