The world’s most awaited sporting event is kicking off today. As the world is getting ready to join the excitement, spammers continue to raise their spam game. As discussed in the blog last month, we started observing variants of the FIFA spam on top of what we have already seen (like fishing, scams, and malicious attachments). Spammers are dishing out a variety of tactics such as fake gift cards and online pharmacies to lure email users. In the recent spam promotion, spammer offers fake gift cards and invite users to participate in surveys. Below is a of such an offer where spammers are asking for opinions on the chances of Team USA in this edition of the World Cup. Email users are being offered free gift cards for taking such surveys. Especially after their good showing in the Confederations Cup last year (Runner up), USA supporters are more excited about the progress of their team. Being aware of this fact, spammers won’t miss the opportunity to attract email users, especially email users from the USA. Not surprisingly, the World Cup related spam campaign is picking up as the World Cup begins. We are also observing World Cup related news and quotes being used as subject lines in medicine or other product’s spam campaign. Following are some of the subject lines used in spam samples: Subject: FIFA World Cup South Africa... bad news Subject: World cup scandals Subject: 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP Subject: Catch the World Cup Action by the Pool at City of Dreams Subject: World Cup Fever | Your 20 GBP Wager awaits Subject: World cup offer on canvas! Subject: User, enjoy a double Bonus and double points for the World Cup kick Subject: Know your football? Make your world cup predictions. Completely free. Predict correct and win a huge cash prize. Symantec is closely monitoring the spam related to World Cup and will update our readers. However we recommend that users not entertain any offers from unknown sources or unsolicited emails related to the event. Note: Thanks to Paresh Joshi for contributed content.