Elaborate phishing scam targets people who illegally download Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is the most illegally downloaded show in the world. HBO was so spooked by the rampant piracy during the show’s fifth season that it took extra measures to prevent it during Season 6—for example, it didn’t send out press screeners of the episodes ahead of time for fear they would leak online, and it stepped up efforts to punish offenders. According to TorrentFreak, someone (or someones) out there is that last one to their advantage by threatening people who have downloaded episodes of the show with legal action if they don’t fork over some money.

The internet first caught wind of this scam a month ago, when a woman who subscribed to Cox Cable received a notice purporting to be from IP-Echelon, the monitoring firm HBO and other companies use to keep piracy under control. The notice accused the woman of illegally downloading a copy of Lionsgate’s Allegiant, a charge she disputed. At the time, the event seemed isolated, but there have been reports of similar incidents in the UK and Australia, so we could have a worldwide scam on our hands.

Given the show’s popularity, the scammers have been targeting Game of Thrones fans particularly hard. Here’s an excerpt from a letter accusing someone of illegally downloading “The Winds of Winter,” the Game of Thrones Season 6 finale.

"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 an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys."

The letter also provided a link where the user could pay a few hundred dollars to settle the case.

The notices have caused confusion, since IP-Echelon does send notices to pirates, but not threatening settlement requests. “They seemed believable at first because they were sending notices about customers who we are accustomed to seeing a high volume of torrenting complaints about,” said an employee at a datacenter that had been targeted by the scammers.

"We have a few VPN providers on our network and they get a lot of complaints from the real IP Echelon. At first I thought IP Echelon renamed their service or got bought out. I do think they are monitoring P2P networks, not just making these up out of thin air."

The real IP-Echelon says that US law enforcement is looking into the matter, but tracking down the source of these scams can be difficult. So be wary, and maybe consider getting HBO Now, or stealing a friend’s HBO Go password. The classics never go out of style.

h/t TechTimes