Looking for World Cup tickets? How to avoid getting scammed

The FIFA World Cup is a hot ticket right now — and with devoted fans scouring the web for the best price, that's where scammers come in, experts say.

New York State officials warn that worldwide events of this magnitude could attract consumers  who are eager to attend and may pay higher prices to do so, with scammers keen to steal personal information and money on the other side of transactions.

The World Cup, an international soccer competition for men's national teams of FIFA, the sport's global governing body, is one of the world’s most widely viewed sporting events. Ticket prices can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the match and seat, and prices have been financially out of reach for many, Newsday has reported.

Consumers should stay vigilant or risk losing “tens of thousands of dollars,” said Katie Sherwin, director of the New York State Division of Consumer Protection.

“With any large event that has a high demand, tickets are the easiest way for scammers to get people’s money," Sherwin said.

Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, says that overall, his organization is "seeing more scams than we’ve ever seen before." When consumers are desperate for something, such as World Cup tickets, that's prime time for scam artists, he added.

"You've got people coming from out of the country, and people who may not be familiar with our laws, so there's an ample opportunity to take advantage of people," Rheingold said.

For many fans, the World Cup is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that mindset is preyed upon, Rheingold said: When fans spend tons of money and travel long distances only to be told their ticket is invalid, "it's a big burden."

"The only relief you can hope to get is your money back, but in reality, a lot of these scam artists are here today, gone tomorrow," he added.

One way to avoid risk is to purchase tickets directly through the FIFA World Cup organization’s official website, Sherwin said.

For those who turn to resellers, look for red flags, Sherwin said: Scammers who create websites to sell World Cup tickets might put effort into making the homepage and ticket purchase pages seem legitimate, but will neglect other details, such as the privacy policy or contact information. Those details are often missing or “filled with gibberish,” Sherwin said.

The age of the domain address is another sign. “If it’s only been registered for a couple months, I would be highly suspicious," she said. There are online tools that can verify the age of a domain address or provide archival information, such as Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Obtaining a reseller's identification will help consumers in a worst-case scenario, said Commissioner Rick Capece of the Nassau County Department of Consumer Affairs: “If it is a bad ticket, now the police have something to go on," he said. Capece said his department has not received any World Cup-related complaints.

The state Division of Consumer Protection received one World Cup-related complaint, and the Federal Trade Commission database registered approximately 80 complaints from New Yorkers tied to ticket sales and resales, with many appearing to be scams, according to a public information officer. Additionally, there have been 949 World Cup-related complaints globally reported in the FTC database over the past year, and 261 of them are from the past month.

Capece warned that in the age of artificial intelligence, scammers have become more sophisticated.

Stacy Finkelstein, a marketing professor at Stony Brook University, often talks with her students about how AI is changing internet searches. An AI overview appears on top of search engine results, which can sometimes direct consumers to false information being presented as facts, known as “AI hallucination,” Finkelstein said. She recommends that consumers do their “due diligence and follow through” by clicking through the cited links.

Using a credit card for these purchases ensures more protection, Sherwin said. If a consumers believe they have been scammed, they should contact their credit card company to try to reverse the transaction, and then law enforcement.

Sherwin encourages consumers to report their experiences to the FTC's fraud report page or the FBI’s Internet crime complaint center. Consumers can also use the BBB Scam Tracker to report a scam or search a database to see other reports. Rheingold suggests filing a complaint with the State Attorney General's office. 

It’s hard for consumers to be cautious when they’re so excited about an event, but there is a guideline to keep in mind while hunting for tickets, said Sherwin: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.