Online scammers are using the death of Pope Francis to steal data and scam people, according to a research report by cyber security firm Check Point, reported by Politico on Wednesday, the 23rd of April.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified posts on social media sites including Instagram and TikTok that attempt to trick users into clicking on links in the posts.
One example was a fake news story with a link to a fake Google page. This page tried to trick people into paying money or sharing confidential information through gift card scam.
Another post on TikTok claimed that the Pope’s death was fake news in an attempt to get people to share it. Some other messages showed images of the Pope created by artificial intelligence.
These types of campaigns often appear around major news events, when hackers try to lure unsuspecting users to fraudulent sites by arousing curiosity and emotional reactions.
“Cyber criminals love to exploit chaos and curiosity,” said Rafa Lopez, security engineer at Check Point. “Whenever there is a major news event, we see a sharp increase in the number of scams aimed at exploiting the public’s interest.”
Dubbed “cyber threat opportunism” by researchers, the phenomenon was particularly acute during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Google identified 18 million malware and phishing messages daily Gmail messages related to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, thousands of people turned out at St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday to pay their last respects to Pope Francis before his funeral on Saturday.