Players and sports fans around the globe are already warming up for some of the major tournaments like EPL, Champions League, and the MLB World Series. Various national soccer leagues across Europe, including the famous EPL and Champions League, are kicking off in August. In the United States, baseball fans are eagerly waiting for the MLB World Series, which is scheduled in October. During this season spammers are racing to reach millions of mailboxes with fake product promotions and fraudulent content. Recently we’ve come across product offer spam linked to the upcoming busy sports season. In this particular scam message, spammers are seeking football players’ profiles. Below is an example of a scam message along with headers: This is not the first time we have monitored scam messages targeting football players. Spammers employ these old spam techniques when the new season begins. Scammers are aware of the fact that transfer of players between soccer clubs and the hiring of new players is currently underway. So, they pretend to be FIFA’s licensed agents and give helping hands to young upcoming players to sign contracts with various clubs. Interested players are asked to communicate over a separate email address provided in the mail. With this, scammers are seeking active email accounts to commit further fraudulent activity, or include these emails in future spam campaigns. Interestingly, the phone number provided in the fraudulent email has been used in many other scam emails from an earlier period. In the product promotion spam emails, spammers are targeting baseball lovers who haven’t been able to get tickets for crucial matches, or prefer to watch games in their living room. In this limited time offer, spammers have come up with a so-called “best deal ever” on HDTV, offering discount packages so that people can enjoy live games without missing the MLB World Series—mimicking legitimate offers on TV. Below are various From and Subject lines used in this type of spam: From: "Countdown to MLB Playoffs" <coach@removed> From: "Countdown to MLB Playoffs" <Free_HBO@removed> Subject: Watch your favorite MLB teams in HD Subject: MLB channel in HD + FREE HD DVR Upgrade Below is a sample of the offer: So, we’ve seen spammers promoting fake tournament tickets and product offers related to sports. However, because there is still some time before these larger sporting events begin, spammers will undoubtedly attempt to push such fraudulent offers to users’ inboxes. Symantec is keeping a close eye on this and safeguarding users’ mailboxes from these unsolicited offers. Users are advised to refrain from clicking on such promotional mails unless they are from authorized or official sources. Note: Thanks to Paresh Joshi for contributed content.