VANCOUVER - Soaring ticket prices and transport costs at this year's World Cup are creating a perfect storm for cyber fraud and scams, according to an industry expert.
Scam artists are active around every major global sporting event, but the heightened expense of this World Cup-more than any previous edition-means fans are more vulnerable, warns Nuno Sebastiao, CEO of Feedzai, a company that works with banks to detect financial crime.
"Large gatherings like a World Cup are a scammer's dream," Sebastiao told Reuters. "The cost of these events is fairly high. People are always trying to get a good deal, and that's what criminals prey on."
He also noted that football fans, unlike those in other sports, often have lower incomes, making them more likely to fall for scams in their eagerness to attend matches.
A report from The Knoble, a nonprofit focused on financial crime, forecast the tournament would fuel more than 28,500 suspicious transactions globally. The main fraud areas are expected to be ticketing, travel, and online scams, often run by large criminal networks and sometimes state-sponsored.
Cyber fraud around major events also fuels human rights abuses, Sebastiao said, including forced labor in call centers and human trafficking for sexual exploitation. He cited a recent Super Bowl operation in northern California that led to 29 arrests and the recovery of 73 sex trafficking victims, including minors. A similar security effort is planned for the same stadium during World Cup matches in June and July.