{"id":73548,"date":"2026-05-15T04:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/from-phishing-to-porn-star-impersonators-how-scamming-athletes-became-a-billion-dollar-industry\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:55:26","slug":"from-phishing-to-porn-star-impersonators-how-scamming-athletes-became-a-billion-dollar-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/from-phishing-to-porn-star-impersonators-how-scamming-athletes-became-a-billion-dollar-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"From phishing to porn star impersonators: how scamming athletes became a billion-dollar industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Athletes have always been targets for criminals hoping to profit from their wealth. But a new wave of dangers has cropped up in recent years<\/p>\n<p>With exorbitant ticket, travel and hotel prices making fans desperate to find an affordable way of attending this summer\u2019s World Cup, it\u2019s no surprise that security <a href=\"https:\/\/www.feedzai.com\/pressrelease\/feedzai-the-knoble-human-trafficking-world-cup\/\">firms<\/a> and law enforcement <a href=\"https:\/\/rcmp.ca\/en\/news\/2026\/03\/4351625\">agencies<\/a> are warning that fans are at significant risk of becoming fraud victims.<\/p>\n<p>While major tournaments are moments of heightened vulnerability for supporters, players themselves are increasingly attractive year-round targets for cybercriminals who can use AI to mount ever more sophisticated attacks.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/may\/15\/sports-athletes-scams-cybercrimes\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Athletes have always been targets for criminals hoping to profit from their wealth. But a new wave of dangers has cropped up in recent years With exorbitant ticket, travel and hotel prices making fans desperate to find an affordable way of attending this summer\u2019s World Cup, it\u2019s no surprise that security firms and law enforcement &#8230; <a title=\"From phishing to porn star impersonators: how scamming athletes became a billion-dollar industry\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/from-phishing-to-porn-star-impersonators-how-scamming-athletes-became-a-billion-dollar-industry\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about From phishing to porn star impersonators: how scamming athletes became a billion-dollar industry\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}