Burning Man – one of the largest and most unusual festivals in the world – will traditionally take place in August this year. The event attracts tens of thousands of participants annually, including Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Elon Musk who attended it in different years. If you plan to attend the event this year, remember that the official sale of tickets will only begin in March.
Kaspersky Lab specialists discovered a phishing site that has been selling tickets for Burning Man 2020 since late January for half of the official prices.
A fake website repeats the official page of the festival, but it is registered to a private person and is designed primarily for the Russian-speaking audience. For payment, users are directed to the page of one of the Russian acquiring systems with a note that the transfer will be carried out not to a legal entity, but to an individual.
Naturally, you should not expect anything good from such a purchase. Not only can you lose the money, but you also risk handing over personal data to the fraudsters: name, phone number, email, and bank card details.
Phishing schemes are cybercriminals’ favorite tools because they’re easy to organize, and at the same time, such sites can bring significant profit.
Those who are planning on going to Burning Man this year are advised to exercise caution and wait for the official start of sales.
In order not to fall for the tricks of scammers, do the following:
- Before entering the payment details, make sure that it is the official site of the event by, for instance, checking the spelling of the website. If in doubt, you can also check the date of registration of the domain and the name of the person to whom it is registered by using Whois-services;
- Track the official start of sales of tickets for Burning Man and other major events;
- Subscribe to the official newsletter from festival organizers to receive information from a reliable source;
- Get a separate card for shopping for tickets to various entertainment events, as well as for online shopping, and store a small amount of money on it;
- Use a reliable security solution to protect against a wide range of cyber threats, including phishing.
