INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — The FBI has issued a warning about ticket scams aimed at World Cup fans.
This is the last week for games, all of which will be hosted by stadiums in the United States.
France takes on Spain tomorrow in Dallas, Texas and all roads lead to Sunday’s final in New Jersey.
World Cup fans are losing thousands of dollars buying tickets that don’t even exist, Indiana’s I-Team has learned.
“My family is from Argentina, so it's a big deal for us,” said Yves Siroit, a World Cup fan.“We actually went to the World Cup in Russia in 2018, so made it all the way out there.”
Through a friend, Yves met a businessman who called himself Stephen.
“He said he worked in marketing, so he would market to these like World Cup sponsors like Michelob Ultra and all these sponsors of the World Cup, Coca Cola and things like that,” said Yves.
World Cup tickets can often sell for more than $2,000 per ticket.
“He had them for starting at like $400, $600, $800 for like the higher levels,” said Yves.
Yves said he had tons of friends and family interested in World Cup tickets, so he paid Stephen $22,000 over the course of several months via Zelle.
He never received his tickets.
“I had a contract with him for all the tickets, and on the contract he was supposed to give me the tickets by May 20, and that day came around, and that's when I started freaking out,” said Yves.
Yves said he tried contacting his bank but they would not refund the money because he gave the money to Stephen willingly.
Indiana’s I-Team is investigating what happened to Yves, including an Indiana link.Police are also investigating.
He wishes he had heeded the red flags, including the seller not having an online presence or website.
“The idea of it not being true was like too hard to handle,” said Yves. “I was trying to convince myself and ignoring the red flags.”
World Cup fans are also losing money through spoofed FIFA websites that look legitimate, but they’re not.
According to the FBI, spoofed websites may mimic the legitimate URL by using a minor misspelling, such as fiffa[.]com, or alternative top-level domains, such as .org rather than .com.
“This form of cyberattack — called typo squatting — relies on Internet users making mistakes, such as common typos, when visiting a URL,” the FBI said in its alert.
The FBI says it is aware of the following domains spoofing the legitimate FIFA; however, the public should be aware that new websites will continue to appear.
- www.fifa[.]cab
- www.fifa[.]pink
- www.fifa[.]blue
- www.fifa[.]pub
- FIFA[.]city
- Fifa[.]bio
- fifa[.]beer
- fifa[.]click
- fifa[.]cam
- fifa[.]ceo
- fifa[.]help
- filfa[.]org
- fifa-online[.]com
- https://fifa-2026[.]xyz
- jobs-fifa[.]com
- fifa-hr[.]com
- fifa-careerhub[.]com
- fifaworldcup-careers[.]com
- fifa-hiring[.]com
- fifahiring[.]com
- fifa-ticket[.]live
- fifastore.us[.]com
- fifaworldcup26[.]sale
- fifaworldcup26.xcover-staging[.]com
- worldcup2026-tickets.com[.]mx
- worldcup26ticket[.]com
- 2026fifaworldcuptickets[.]online
- fwc2026[.]net
- fwc2026.web[.]app
- www.fifa2026p[.]com
- fifa2026fworldcup[.]com
- wvvw-fifa[.]com
- ww-fifa[.]com
- fifa-com[.]com
- www.fifa-com[.]services
- quiniela-fifa-2026.pages[.]dev
In some cases, websites are offering discounted tickets and ask fans to pay with cryptocurrency.
“Cryptocurrency payments have become more mainstream, and it's become more widely accepted for the use of crypto,” said Courtney Werning, a principal with Meyer Wilson Werning law firm. “In an international soccer event like that, it may not come off to people as something that's particularly concerning.”
Her law firm represents victims of fraud.Werning says while they can’t find the scammers, they can hold banks, brokers and financial institutions accountable.
“We look at whether there are any viable institutions that should have been protecting the customer, and that's typically where my cases lie,” said Werning. “Let's see who else might be responsible for having, you know, failed cybersecurity protocols or failed the duty of care that they owe to their customers."
The FBI recommends individuals take the following precautions:
- When navigating to FIFA's official website, type fifa.com directly into the address bar located at the top of your Internet browser, rather than using a search engine.
- If using a search engine, avoid any "sponsored" results as these can be paid imitators looking to deter traffic from the legitimate FIFA website.
- Verify that the URL of the FIFA website ends in [.]com and is correctly entered as www.fifa.com. Avoid clicking on any link whose URL differs from the legitimate FIFA website to mitigate risk of fraud.
- Use Bookmarks or Favorites for navigating to login websites rather than clicking on Internet search results or advertisements.
- Navigate to subdomains such as plus.fifa.com directly from the official FIFA homepage. Exercise caution when typing subdomains directly into the address bar.
- Never click on links that may include suspicious artifacts or graphics, such as unprofessional or low-quality graphics used to imitate a legitimate website.
- Never share sensitive information if you are unsure of the website's legitimacy
- Exercise caution when clicking on advertisements. Before clicking on an advertisement, check the URL to make sure the site is authentic. Malicious advertisements may redirect users to a different website than indicated.
