The 2010 World Cup VIP Membership scam ranks as one of the most audacious and amusing encountered in the run-up to soccer’s premier event. The scammers use a simple e-mail to try and trick recipients into believing they are entitled to a VIP membership card offering outlandish benefits.
The latter include; free hotel accommodation, a South African entry visa, free luggage and taxi transfer and trips around South Africa.
Says Symantec’s Dan Bleaken: “All you need to do to get your VIP membership card is to send, yes you guessed it, some of your personal details including your name, age, telephone number and e-mail address.
“This kind of scam can have serious financial consequences as victims could fly to South Africa believing they have free accommodation, transfers and match tickets only to be left stranded on arrival in South Africa.”
Like so many scam e-mails of this type, the dead give-away is the atrocious spelling, lack of punctuation and other grammatical errors throughout (see screenshot below).
Amusingly, the “Westfofd Hotel” mentioned is probably meant to represent one of Johannesburg’s most prestigious hotels, the Westerford. It also asks the recipient to believe the unlikely contention that the South African government allows hotels and tour groups to issue visas.
The final killer is the promise of free tickets to every match! Anyone who has experienced the Fifa ticket purchasing process will realise just how absurd this truly is.