Have Scammers Caught Up with Super 15, Too?

Have Scammers Caught Up with Super 15, Too?

With the fast-paced, high-drama happenings surrounding the World Cup for weeks now, and the much-anticipated conclusion set today, it’s fairly easy to forget that there is another high-octane sporting event that has been going on for months prior to this current competition in Brazil: Super Rugby.

In its 19th season this year of Super Rugby or more widely known as Super 15, 15 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have been going head to head against each other since February as they make their way to the grand finals on August 2, three weeks from now.

If you’re a rugby fan or someone who’s simply interested in watching a live match of the sport and you happen to go looking for free streaming services online, you may encounter several sites that appear they are what you are looking for. Take the below site, for example:

OfficialTVStream default page

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The purported high-quality online steaming service, OfficialStreamTV, it appears, has been all over the internet, thanks to spammers who are diligent enough to set up fake accounts on free blogging services, social networks (even non-English ones), bookmarking sites and forums in order to post links leading to a page that look like this:

Rugby streaming page hosted on Blogger

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The link to the site you see above was shared on Blogger. This, too, was hosted on the same.

Although a bit broken at the top, we can tell that the admin did his or her best to make it look convincing and sleek, even following the current trend in today’s Web page design (Screen-wide pictures, anyone?)

Clicking any of the three red buttons on the page opens to a new destination where visitors can begin signing up in order to subscribe to the service. They need to enter their basic information and billing details:

Rugby - OfficialTVStream Sign In

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I didn’t pretend to be a willing client and enter my details at this point. After reading the scores of complaints online about OfficialStreamTV, I already know what to expect.

Furthermore, several security companies and independent Web review services flag the domain and its pages as potentially unsafe at best, phishing and malicious at worse.

Let this post also serve to warn those who are on the lookout for World Cup live streaming. Yes, this site purportedly cater to soccer…

Purported FIFA World Cup Live Stream

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FIFA - OfficialTVStream Sign In

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…and boxing fans, too.

Boxing - OfficialTVStream Sign In

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For future reference, everything that can be streamed live (sports, games, etc.) can and will be used my scammers and fraudsters to dupe users who just want to be supportive to their teams.

Stay informed, everyone!

Author’s Note: There are some sites out there manned by well-intentioned netizens that list down a lot of potentially fake online streaming sites. I focused on discussing only one, which is OfficialStreamTV, because it’s quite popular now based on the number of daily visits it receives. I encourage you, dear Reader, to visit the extensive lists here and here to familiarize yourself with other purported streaming services you should avoid and warn people about.

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Jovi Umawing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jovi Umawing

Knows a bit about everything and a lot about several somethings. Writes about those somethings, usually in long-form.