The Odyssey piracy scams surface hours after its theatrical debut

Malwarebytes researchers observed coordinated piracy-site scams targeting users searching for a new movie release: one scam displayed a fake “Browser Issue Detected” pop-up that routed victims through malvertising to fake extensions, scareware, or redirects, while another offered a .exe disguised as a movie file (using a VLC icon) that, if executed, could install trojans, infostealers, loaders, or ransomware. Both rely on social-engineering rather than software vulnerabilities and appeared within hours of the film’s release.