An industry academic has warned soaring ticket prices and transport costs at this year’s World Cup will lure fans into cyber fraud and scams by the enticement of forgeries as supporters mistakenly believe they have bagged a bargain.
As a result, scam artists are on the prowl during every major global sporting event but there’s an added peril of World Cup tickets being costlier than at any previous edition, said Nuno Sebastiao, CEO and co-founder of Feedzai.
“A World Cup or a massive gathering is a scammer’s paradise,” said Sebastiao, whose company partners with banks worldwide to help detect and stop fraud and other financial crime.
The cost of these events is relatively high, “If you’ll get that later, I’ll pay you. And at any given point people are always trying to get one over. That’s what these criminals are taking advantage of.
Foot-ball Fans are neither a High Income person like one could imagine in other Sports. The tendency to be scammed is bigger because you really want to go, you really want to see the game and when you do not have money.
When approached again, Fifa did not provide an immediate response concerning the advice it would offer fans attending the tournament and if any special measures would be put in place.
Earlier this month, a report by The Knoble — a nonprofit network that tackles financial crime — predicted the World Cup would trigger 28,500 suspect payments worldwide.
Around ticketing, travel and online scams — the key fraud categories, — most of which are run by sizable criminal networks that Sebastiao also warned are often state-sponsored.
“We’re talking about a worldwide network funded by… Iran, North Korea that our justice system can’t touch,” he said.
“We see operations in Latin America, certain African countries, certain Eastern European countries that have some understanding of the languages used at these events.”
Major international sports events also drive cyber fraud and scams, said Sebastiao.
Here there are slave labour with the giant call centres,” he said.
“They take their passports and make them work slave hours doing phishing and scamming attacks.”
Criminal networks do the same in the field around venues, even in sex work.
As Sebastiao said: “When we see people getting arrested, some of them themselves are victims.
“They’re victims of human trafficking. They are forced to because of illegal immigrants.
“Any time you have these big gatherings, there are those who are being trafficked to be sexually exploited.
Santa Clara County’s Human Trafficking Task Force said on Tuesday that 29 traffickers were arrested and 73 victims of sex trafficking — including 10 underage children — were recovered when the Super Bowl was in northern California earlier this year.
A similar operation will be put in place at this year’s World Cup in June and July when the same San Francisco Bay Area Stadium hosts six games.