FIFA World Cup 2026 hype starts scams, fake apps and ransoms targeting fans and businesses

Fraudsters pre-position FIFA World Cup infrastructure
Fraud spans the financial, travel and gambling sectors
Companies are encouraged to prepare before the tournament begins

FIFA World Cup 2026 themed scams will peak as you would expect right before and during the World Cup. But to maximize the effectiveness of these scams, the scammers need a lot more time.

This is according to cyber security researchers Check Point Research, who said in a new blog post that fraudsters have been positioning themselves for months now, focusing on three key pillars: finance, travel and hospitality and gambling. Now that the World Cup is about to begin, the infrastructure for fraud is “already built” and most of the fraud sites are already live.

“The financial ecosystem around any mega-event is exactly the kind of environmental threat that actors prefer,” CPR explains. “Increasing transaction volumes, unknown merchants, compressed purchasing windows and international flows all reduce the controls that normally curb fraud.”

Lack of DMARC enforcement complicates matters

Match tickets may be scarce, but scams will abound. Shadowy cryptocurrency tokens, unrelated to FIFA, with a completely anonymous team and no use case, are already circulating.

Fake hotels, ticket sites and even sellers of goods are everywhere. To make matters worse, legitimate business partners aren’t helping either – a third of them lack adequate DMARC enforcement, meaning they can easily be spoofed by cybercriminals.

For CPR, this means one thing – to protect their good name, as well as the welfare of their customers, companies must do the same as criminals do – prepare well in advance.

“Threat actors are already pre-positioning infrastructure, testing entry points and activating campaigns at moments of high visibility and operational pressure. By the time the tournament is live, the window for preparation will largely be closed,” they said. “For organizations, this means that the preparation must be done before the tournament begins.”

Now the key question is – is your business ready for the next 30 days?