Researchers say more than 13,000 World Cup-related domains have been registered since January, nearly 9% of which appear suspicious, with most using .com to project legitimacy.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup beginning this week, FortiGuard Labs warns of a sweeping rise in fraud targeting fans scrambling for tickets, streams, and tournament deals.
Researchers say more than 13,000 World Cup-related domains have been registered since January, nearly 9% of which appear suspicious, with most using .com to project legitimacy.
Scam tactics span copycat ticket portals that harvest card details, fake “create a FIFA ticket profile” pages that throw errors after siphoning passwords, and “Free World Cup 4K Live Stream Player” lures that deliver infostealers like Vidar, LummaC2, and RedLine. Once installed, these steal saved browser passwords and crypto wallet keys. FortiGuard notes a sharp spike in fraudulent domain registrations between March and May 2026 as kickoff neared.
Criminals are also exploiting FOMO and confusion around last-minute logistics. Telegram channels and social posts push “discounted” packages and streaming links, while bogus storefronts demand payments via bitcoin, bank wires, Apple Pay, Zelle, or CashApp—then generate fake invoices tied to generic email accounts.
Some portals claim long operating histories despite domains created only months ago. Researchers additionally tracked over 1,700 impersonation accounts across Facebook and Instagram and reported 270,430 leaked credentials, with some scams posing as football bodies and public authorities to boost credibility.
Safety tips for fans:
Type official URLs directly; avoid links in unsolicited messages.
Be skeptical of steep discounts or urgent countdowns.
Check domain age and spelling; verify contact details and refund policies.
Never bypass security warnings to install “players,” “betting trackers,” or browser extensions.
Enable MFA, use unique passwords, and keep devices patched.
Prefer secure payments with chargeback protection; avoid crypto and wire transfers for first-time sellers.
Authorities and platforms are urged to fast-track takedowns of fraudulent domains, monitor social impersonation, and coordinate with national CERTs as high-profile matches drive traffic spikes 1.
Investigators say scammers are exploiting retail transitions, including store closures and site changes, to capture brand searches.
Researchers warn such “data poisoning” campaigns are escalating as criminals attempt to influence how AI systems rank retailers, products, and deals.
Cloned retail websites are appearing in AI-generated shopping recommendations, raising questions about how effectively AI search tools are filtering fraud as more consumers rely on them for product picks.
UK scam-checking service Ask Silver identified fake sites impersonating British retailers Russell & Bromley and Dunelm being surfaced as sources in ChatGPT responses. In tests asking for popular Russell & Bromley bags and purses, ChatGPT provided product suggestions, prices, and links—some of which routed users to fraudulent lookalike domains.
Investigators say scammers are exploiting retail transitions, including store closures and site changes, to capture brand searches.
Data poisoning campaigns
Ask Silver suggested confusion following Russell & Bromley’s closure and subsequent acquisition by Next earlier this year may have created openings for clones that mimic branding, imagery, and product descriptions.
Some fake sites dangle discounts of up to 80 per cent—a classic red flag—and use domains such as therussellbromleyofficial, russellandbromleylondon, russellbromleyonlineuk, and russell-and-bromley.
Ask Silver co-founder Anna Jones said the underlying large language model may have been “poisoned,” referring to tactics where malicious content is injected into web sources—via cloned pages, synthetic reviews, and automated forum posts—to manipulate what AI systems crawl and recommend.
Researchers warn such “data poisoning” campaigns are escalating as criminals attempt to influence how AI systems rank retailers, products, and deals.
Louise Baxter, head of scams at National Trading Standards, cautioned consumers not to assume legitimacy simply because a site appears in an AI-generated answer, noting criminals are adapting quickly. OpenAI told The Guardian it removed the fraudulent sites from its search index.
Consumer advice:
Verify URLs carefully and navigate to official retailer sites directly.
Treat steep discounts (e.g., up to 80%) as high-risk indicators.
Look for secure payment methods and check independent contact details and returns policies before purchasing.
Hub71 received more than 5,000 startup applications, a 62% increase year-on-year, and welcomed 52 startups into its community.
Hub71 said startups in its ecosystem have raised more than $2.7 billion (AED9.9 billion) and generated $1.5 billion (AED 5.4 billion) in revenue by end‑2025, underscoring the emirate’s ascent as a destination for high‑growth tech firms.
The figures, published in Hub71’s 2025 Impact Report, reflect a maturing base of ventures gaining capital, customers, and global reach.
In 2025 alone, Hub71 startups secured $599 million (AED2.2 billion) and produced $175 million (AED 645 million) in revenue, extending multi‑year momentum. Since launching in 2019, the community has grown to 390 startups—295 supported through Hub71 programs—linking founders with investors, corporates, regulators, talent, and strategic partners.
“Hub71’s performance reflects the sustained progress Abu Dhabi is achieving in building a more competitive, innovation‑led economy,” said Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of Hub71 . “Startups are contributing to investment and long‑term growth, while strengthening the emirate’s position as a place where ambitious technology companies can build, scale and compete globally.”
“2025 was a year of meaningful progress for Hub71’s community, which now spans more than 390 startups and over 200 partners,” added Ahmad Ali Alwan, CEO of Hub71.
Founder interest accelerated in 2025, with more than 5,000 applications—a 62% year‑on‑year increase—and 52 startups joining. Executives said rising international appetite reflects Abu Dhabi’s appeal as a launchpad for capital access and expansion across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
Corporate commercialisation is also gaining pace. From 2022 to 2025, Hub71 startups signed $244 million (AED 897 million) in corporate deals, including $37 million (AED 137 million) in 2025, highlighting deeper enterprise engagement across the ecosystem.
“Together, these factors reinforce Hub71’s position as a platform that enables founders to build globally relevant tech startups from Abu Dhabi.”
Hub71 broadened its international footprint in 2025, deepening ties with venture firms, corporates, and government bodies in Hong Kong, Japan, Portugal, India, Ireland, and the United States to open commercial and investment pathways for Abu Dhabi‑built startups.
To attract and land high‑growth companies, Hub71 launched its Immersion Programme, offering hands‑on support on market entry, regulation, and commercialisation.
The 2025 cohorts included startups from Hong Kong and Japan via partnerships with HSITP, Cyberport, MTR Lab, and JETRO.
Advancing its specialist‑vertical strategy, Hub71 introduced Hub71+ Life Sciences in 2025, joining Hub71+ AI, Hub71+ ClimateTech, and Hub71+ Digital Assets, aligning with Abu Dhabi’s long‑term priorities and supporting healthcare innovation, biotechnology, and advanced life sciences.
Middle East traffic remains anchored to legacy bands: 5 GHz carried 55.4% of samples in first quarter of 2026, with 2.4 GHz still accounting for 44.2% and 6 GHz with just 0.3%.
Omdia forecasts Wi‑Fi 7 customer‑premises equipment to expand at a 35.2% annually, reaching 13.8% of the global consumer installed base by 2030, while Wi‑Fi 6 remains dominant at 62% (9.7% growth). Wi‑Fi 8 (802.11bn) is expected to debut from 2028, with a focus on reliability, roaming, latency, and power efficiency rather than headline speeds.
The Middle East’s shift to next‑generation Wi‑Fi remains nascent, with just 0.3 per cent of Wi‑Fi samples using the 6 GHz band in the first quarter of 2026, up slightly from 0.2 per cent a year earlier, according to Ookla Speedtest data.
Uptake is concentrated in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies, led by the United Arab Emirates (1.1 per cent) and Qatar (0.9 per cent), while much of the region continues to rely on older spectrum.
Despite policy moves in advanced markets such as Saudi Arabia to open the full 1,200 MHz of 6 GHz for unlicensed use, Middle East traffic remains anchored to legacy bands: 5 GHz carried 55.4 per cent of samples in FIRST QUARTER OF 2026, with 2.4 GHz still accounting for 44.2 per cent.
Analysts say regulatory and economic fragmentation is dampening regional averages and masking a stark divide between fibre‑dense GCC markets—now matching or outpacing Europe—and non‑GCC Levant and North African markets, which remain tied to legacy infrastructure.
Technology mix data underscores that split. Wi‑Fi 4 remains the single largest standard in the region at 38.8 per cent of samples, followed by Wi‑Fi 5 at 34.9 per cent. While Wi‑Fi 4 is declining and Wi‑Fi 7 has entered the market, the transition is uneven and closely linked to spectrum availability and CPE upgrades.
Globally, Wi‑Fi 7 adoption is early but accelerating. After the Wi‑Fi 7 (802.11be) specification was finalised in July 2025, the standard reached 1.8 per cent of samples by first quarter of 2026, alongside Wi‑Fi 6 at 26.7 per cent, Wi‑Fi 5 at 38.3 per cent and Wi‑Fi 4 at 33.2 per cent.
Band usage continues to shift toward 5 GHz, which climbed from 49.4 per cent of samples in first quarter of 2022 to 59.8 per cent in first quarter of 2026, while 2.4 GHz fell from 50.6 per cent to 38.5 per cent. The 6 GHz band remains a small but growing slice of global usage—and within that slice, Wi‑Fi 7 is punching above its weight: about one‑third (33.7 per cent) of 6 GHz samples in first quarter of 2026 came from Wi‑Fi 7 CPE, up from 16.5 per cent a year earlier.
The appeal of 6 GHz and Wi‑Fi 7 is clear. Where fully allocated, 6 GHz enables up to three contiguous 320 MHz channels, drastically boosting capacity while avoiding congestion from legacy devices.
Wi‑Fi 7 further lifts performance with 4096‑QAM and multi‑link operation, which allows devices to use multiple bands simultaneously for faster, more resilient connections. Real‑world gains depend on both routers and devices supporting 6 GHz; older access points can block 6E/7‑capable phones from tapping the band. Higher frequencies also travel shorter distances—challenging coverage but improving interference management in dense settings.
Looking ahead, Omdia forecasts Wi‑Fi 7 customer‑premises equipment to expand at a 35.2 per cent CAGR, reaching 13.8 per cent of the global consumer installed base by 2030, while Wi‑Fi 6 remains dominant at 62.0 per cent (9.7 per cent CAGR). Wi‑Fi 8 (802.11bn) is expected to debut from 2028, with a focus on reliability, roaming, latency, and power efficiency rather than headline speeds.
Oman Investment Authority (OIA), the sultanate’s sovereign wealth fund, has invested in Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain–computer interface company, as part of its strategy to diversify into advanced medical technologies and other innovative sectors, the fund said Wednesday. The investment amount was not disclosed.
Founded in 2016 and based in the United States, Neuralink develops implantable neural devices designed to enable direct communication between humans and computers and to treat complex neurological conditions such as stroke and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The company has implanted devices in 21 patients as of early this year and aims to complete 1,000 procedures by year-end.
The move follows OIA’s December 2024 investment in Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI. OIA is also a shareholder in SpaceX, the aerospace company behind the Starlink satellite communications network.
Prompts structured responses ranging from hydration reminders and shaded rest areas to mandatory work-rest cycles of a minimum 10 minutes per hour when heat thresholds are exceeded 320C.
Real value of AI-led heat stress management is not in identifying extreme conditions but in intervening before those conditions translate into incidents
On most construction sites in Singapore, heat doesn’t arrive as a sudden threat, but it builds gradually, almost unnoticed.
For instance, when a worker continues under the sun a little longer than planned, or a water break gets delayed. Fatigue does set in, but not enough to stop work immediately. And in that slow build-up, risk begins to take shape.
What makes heat stress particularly challenging is that it affects concentration, slows reaction time, and increases the likelihood of small mistakes.
Gary Ng, CEO of viAct.
As per the guidelines by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), companies are now expected to monitor Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) levels throughout the day and implement structured responses ranging from hydration reminders and shaded rest areas to mandatory work-rest cycles of a minimum 10 minutes per hour when heat thresholds are exceeded 320C.
Employers are also required to ensure workers are properly acclimatised, trained to recognise early symptoms, and supported with immediate access to rest and recovery when needed.
These measures mark a clear shift—from general awareness to active, enforceable heat risk management. But even with these frameworks in place, one question continues to surface on the site:
How do you ensure the right action happens at the right moment?
Reality of managing heat on live site
In practice, heat stress management is still largely structured around planning and supervision.
Supervisors monitor WBGT readings at intervals, breaks are scheduled based on guidelines, workers are briefed during toolbox talks, and water stations are made available. All of this is essential and, in many cases, well implemented too.
But construction sites are dynamic environments. Work intensity changes throughout the day. Exposure varies depending on location and task, while workers often push through discomfort to complete what they’ve started.
Between scheduled checks and planned breaks, there are long stretches where conditions change, but visibility remains low. A worker may begin to experience early fatigue well before the next scheduled rest period. Another may skip hydration unintentionally while focusing on a task. These are small gaps, but they are where risk begins to accumulate.
The challenge here is the gap between guidelines and real-time execution.
Existing CCTV cameras across the site already observe daily operations, but now with an added layer of AI intelligence. From tracking worker movement, activity patterns, to environmental exposure, activities are now coupled with contextual data such as temperature thresholds and duration of exposure. These AI systems begin to identify when a worker may be approaching a risk threshold.
But detection alone is not enough. What matters is whether the system can respond immediately and directly.
In this model, when heat-related risk is identified, the system does not wait for a supervisor to intervene or for the next scheduled check.
Instead, the worker’s smartwatch delivers a quiet, haptic alert—a vibration on the wrist accompanied by a simple instruction:
There is no disruption to the rest of the site. No alarms or announcements. Just a timely, personal prompt that reaches the worker when it matters most.
Real behavioural change
One of the persistent challenges in safety management is verifying whether protocols are followed consistently. Heat stress guidelines can be clearly defined, but adherence often varies depending on workload, urgency, and site conditions.
With integrated AI and wearable systems, this becomes more visible. Each alert, response, and corrective action is recorded. Over time, this creates a clear dataset of actual behaviour on site.
This extends beyond heat stress alone. The same system begins to surface patterns across overlapping risks, whether it is a lone worker spending extended time in an isolated zone, delayed response to fatigue indicators in high-temperature environments, or abnormal inactivity that could signal a fall or distress event.
Safety teams can begin to understand:
How frequently workers reach high exposure levels
How quickly interventions are triggered
How consistently workers respond to alerts
Equally important is that these insights do not remain fragmented. When integrated with existing control and monitoring systems, they contribute to a centralised dashboard with a real-time view of workforce safety – linking detection, communication, and response within a single operational framework.
Designed forconstruction ecosystem
What makes this pilot particularly relevant is that it is being developed within the realities of Singapore’s construction sector.
Projects here are dense, time-sensitive, and highly regulated. From large-scale public housing developments led by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) to infrastructure works under the Land Transport Authority (LTA), expectations around safety and compliance are already high.
The familiarity with on-site conditions plays an important role—not just in developing technology, but in ensuring it integrates smoothly into day-to-day operations.
Integration brings intelligence
The real value of AI-led heat stress management is not in identifying extreme conditions but in intervening before those conditions translate into incidents.
On a typical high-rise construction site, WBGT thresholds may already be exceeded, with scheduled controls in place. From a compliance perspective, everything appears aligned. Yet, risk does not escalate uniformly. It builds unevenly across workers, depending on task intensity, exposure duration, and physical strain.
These micro-variations are rarely captured in traditional systems.
AI-enabled environments address this by continuously interpreting behavioural and exposure signals in context, allowing intervention to occur at the point where risk begins to diverge, not when it becomes visible. The integration with smart wearables is what operationalises this intelligence.
Early deployments using direct, haptic prompts to workers are showing measurable impact. In a viAct heat stress risk monitoring deployment case study, AI video analytics integrated with smartwatches enabled continuous, real-time detection of fatigue and dehydration patterns on a large-scale construction project.
Over time, the site recorded a 63 per cent reduction in heat-related medical cases, alongside over 95 per cent adherence to hydration and rest protocols. It was achieved not through enforcement, but through timely, individualised intervention.
This aligns closely with the direction of Singapore’s regulatory ecosystem, led by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), where the emphasis is moving toward demonstrable, real-time compliance rather than static adherence.
Heat stress does not occur at fixed intervals; it develops continuously based on exposure, workload, and individual response. Managing it effectively requires systems that can recognise when those conditions begin to change and respond immediately. The closer the intervention moves to the point of risk, the more practical prevention becomes.
The way forward
At its core, the idea behind the viAct pilot in heat stress management is simple. An AI camera observes. A smart watch alerts. A worker responds. But what changes is the timing. The delay between recognising risk and acting on it begins to disappear.
And in environments where conditions shift constantly, where heat, fatigue, and human behaviour intersect, that small change in timing can have a significant impact. Because in the end, managing heat stress isn’t just about knowing the rules. It is also about reaching the worker at the exact moment those rules matter most.
Gary Ng is the CEO and Co-Founder of viAct, one of Asia’s top Sustainability-focused AI company that provides “Scenario-based Vision Intelligence” solutions for risk prone workplaces.
