What Happened
The first match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S. — the United States vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood — kicks off Friday. Soccer fans across the country are excited. Scammers have noticed.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department held a news conference Wednesday to warn about a coordinated scam campaign targeting World Cup fans. According to the LA Times, these scams include:
- Fake FIFA Websites: Scammers have built near-perfect replicas of the official FIFA website offering tickets, hospitality packages, merchandise, streaming access, and betting opportunities
- Stolen Credentials and Data: These fake sites steal login information, personal data, and credit card numbers
- Cryptocurrency Requests: Fake checkouts often ask for payment in cryptocurrency or peer-to-peer payment systems (FIFA never does this — they only accept Visa)
- Fake Urgency: Fraudulent sites use countdown timers saying "five minutes to complete this sale" or "price goes up in three minutes"
- Ticket Reseller Scams: Messages on email or Telegram offering resale tickets with links to fraudulent checkout pages
- Fake Job Offers: Elaborate scams posing as FIFA employment opportunities, asking for copies of W-2s, Social Security numbers, and other personal information
The FBI issued a warning last month about this exact pattern, and California is the No. 1 state for online fraud, with over 116,000 complaints filed to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 alone.
Why These Scams Work
Detective Anthony Moore of the Sheriff's Department explained the psychology: "Scammers are not selling tickets. They're selling urgency, that emotion and fear of missing out."
Sergeant Peter Hish added that identifying fake websites has become nearly impossible using old methods. "Any bad actor can digitally replicate a logo or an entire website," he said. "Not only that, we know for these particular websites they're pulling from actual World Cup or FIFA imagery to make their websites look real."
The scammers are also getting sophisticated about pressure tactics. A timer that says "five minutes or the price goes up" is designed to short-circuit your critical thinking and make you pull out your credit card without checking whether the domain is legitimate.
How to Protect Yourself
The LA County Sheriff's Department provided five steps:
- Type the URL directly. Go to fifa.com by typing it in your browser. Don't Google "FIFA tickets" (which shows scam ads), don't click links from emails or text messages, don't use shortened URLs
- Check the domain carefully. Look for hyphens, added words, misspellings, or weird endings (like fifa-tickets.com or fifa-world-cup.shop)
- Don't rush. Countdown timers and "limited seats" warnings are pressure tactics. Legitimate ticket sales don't expire in five minutes
- Never reuse passwords. If you accidentally entered credentials on a fake site, change your passwords immediately (clear your cache first)
- Contact your bank immediately. If you suspect you've given banking information to a scammer, call your bank to freeze or replace your card and dispute charges
If you find a scam site, take screenshots and report it to your local police department and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
Sources
LA Times: World Cup-related scams: What you need to know to protect yourself
FBI: Internet Crime Complaint Center World Cup Warning