Thousands of Scam FIFA Sites Emerge To Target World Cup Fans | PCMag
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The FBI is urging World Cup fans to make sure they're visiting the official FIFA domain when scammers have been flooding the web with thousands of fake, look-alike sites.The real site is at fifa.com, which has been selling tickets to World Cups games. But to scam unsuspecting users, fraudsters have been creating fake World Cup and FIFA sites using variations of the domain, for example, fifa-com[.]com. “The FBI has identified actors engaging in this activity to collect personal information, sell fake World Cup tickets and hospitality products, and to possibly facilitate other malicious activity,” the agency's alert says. You May Also Like
The FBI’s advisory specifically flags three dozen “spoofed” sites. “This form of cyberattack — called typo squatting — relies on Internet users making mistakes, such as common typos, when visiting a URL,” the FBI added. “Threat actors may also register illegitimate websites such as jobs-fifa[.]com to impersonate legitimate subdomains.”
(FBI)
The scale of threat also appears to be vast. The cybersecurity provider Group-IB has uncovered “over 4,300 fraudulent domains impersonating FIFA's official web presence,” registered since August 2025. Recommended by Our Editors Summer Travel Warning: Your Vacation Could Be a Scam Waiting to Happen Hackers Exploit GTA 6 Hype to Spread Malware Via Fake Beta Tests This Malware Trap Targets Mac Users Looking For Tech Help, More Disk Space
(Group-IB)
A Chinese-speaking scam group has been behind over 300 of the fake domains, which involves using a “pixel-perfect clone of the official FIFA website, complete with a replicated single sign-on (SSO) authentication flow, and multi-language support in 11 languages,” Group-IB adds. To lure potential victims, the group has also been advertising the fake FIFA sites using ads on Facebook. In other cases, the fraudsters have been promoting the spoofed sites using fake ticket promotions. To avoid falling for the fake sites, double check the domain in your browser’s search bar, and be careful of ads or messages promoting FIFA. The FBI adds: “If using a search engine, avoid any ‘sponsored’ results as these can be paid imitators looking to deter traffic from the legitimate FIFA website.”
About Our Expert Michael Kan Principal Reporter Experience I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service. I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips. Areas of Expertise Networking Security Graphics Cards Processors AI SpaceX Nvidia AMD Latest By Michael Kan Nvidia and Microsoft Just Dropped a Cryptic Tease. Is an Arm-Powered Windows PC Chip Finally Coming? Amazon's Starlink Rival Faces Setback With Blue Origin Rocket Explosion Microsoft Threatens Researcher Over Bug Reports, Triggers Cybersecurity Uproar Starlink: No Price Hike for New Users With Promotional Discounts (For Now) Intel to Power Windows 11 Gaming Handhelds With Arc G-Series Chips More from Michael Kan