Online scammers have recently targeted the fans of the popular sport football after reports were heard about them selling non-existent football tickets. Furthermore, analytics reveal that over £410 was the average loss per victim, with an uptick rate of 68% in cases from January to June.
These scammers have leveraged the sport’s popularity to defraud its fans. Most victims have lost thousands of pounds by buying fake tickets for live matches, including cup finals and other big events. Security experts are concerned since several upcoming seasonal leagues are underway; thus, many scammers could again take advantage to steal from people.
In usual instances, the scammers post their advertisements on different social media sites, including Facebook. Researchers explained that most scammers prefer payment through bank or digital wallet transfer since these methods usually do not protect victims from fraud.
Social media sites are the most utilised platforms by scammers to trick people, including those that sell non-existent football tickets to fans.
Researchers stated that social media sites allow anyone to easily create fake profiles, with most of them aiming to perform scam campaigns. The selling of non-existent items, such as football tickets, is only one of the countless fraudulent campaigns on social media platforms like Facebook that have victimised numerous people worldwide.
For people to be safe from these malicious campaigns, purchasing tickets from official selling partners is strongly recommended instead of buying from unauthorised entities online. Although some resellers could be legitimate, experts stress that it is better to be safe.
Aside from football tickets, concerts and other sold-out event tickets are also the target attack schemes of fraudsters to trick people. In 2022, there has been a 72% uptick rate for cases involving these scams.
Most of these scammers would often present potential victims with offers that are too good to be true, hence the higher chances of falling prey. Even though it could be traumatising for the victims once they realise their transaction was fake, experts say it is everyone’s due diligence to ensure a legitimate deal before transferring money to unknown people.
