Unbeatable soccer stars, historic goals and legendary goalkeepers: The FIFA World Cup has started in the US, Mexico and Canada, but the search for tickets is still on. There are many fraudsters trying to defraud football fans online.
In May, the US domestic intelligence service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), warned against scams and said it was “issuing a public service announcement to warn the public that cyber threat actors are conducting spoofing attacks against the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) website ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”
It explained that “A fake website is designed to pose as a legitimate website with branding, product listings, etc., and malicious actors use them to pursue illegal activities such as theft of personal information and facilitating monetary scams.”
It also listed dozens of suspicious domains that had already been identified but said “the public should be aware that new websites will continue to emerge.”
DW Fact Check offers some tips for spotting scams.
How do I spot a fake site?
URL: Fake websites often have URLs identical to the original sites with minor differences. For example, the official domain fifa.com can be changed to filfa.org, fifa-online.com, fifa-2026.xyz, fifaworldcup26.sale or fifa-com.services.
Legal Notice: In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and many other countries, websites with commercial or editorial content must display a legally compliant imprint. Therefore, if a website does not have it, it suggests that it is not a legitimate site.
Fake Shop Finder: In Germany, you can use this online tool provided by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBZ) to find out if a site is legitimate. You just have to enter the URL.
Find a domain: You can check when a site was registered www.whois.com
fifa tickets at exorbitant prices
FIFA currently has thousands of official tickets left, according to TicketData, an American platform that tracks major sporting events.
But they are expensive and this is probably the biggest barrier for many fans who want to attend a game. The cheapest tickets for the match between the United States and Paraguay on June 12 were $2,000 on June 10, and tickets for Sunday’s match between the Netherlands and Japan were $900.
Verified ticket resale sites like SeatGeek, StubHub, Vivid, and GameTime often offer FIFA tickets at low prices.
Although FIFA and consumer protection agencies still advise consumers to only purchase through official FIFA channels to avoid fraud, these sites are established ticket marketplaces that guarantee refunds. The purchase is legally valid.
Golpass App Allows users to compare ticket prices across different platforms, both on the official FIFA site as well as unofficial resale sites.
As of June 11, a ticket for the Germany vs. Ivory Coast match on June 20 was priced at $932 on SeatGeek, while it was priced at $3,398 and up on the FIFA site.
Experts see no contradiction in the fact that FIFA allows tickets to be sold at significantly lower prices on other platforms. “The The last thing he wants is a lot of empty seats – not only for the optics but also because any empty seat means a value of $0,” wrote BBC football correspondent Dale Johnson.
“The data shows that fans are unwilling to pay higher ticket prices for less desirable games,” he said. “This suggests FIFA cannot find the high face value on its site, leading to speculation it is trying to sell tickets elsewhere without reducing prices.”
This article was originally written in German.