Beware of fake websites that imitate that of FIFA to sell tickets and merchandise for the 2026 World Cup

The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico starting June 11 and is becoming the event chosen by cybercriminals as the perfect bait to steal sensitive user information with fraudulent sites that imitate the appearance of the official FIFA website.

ESET, a cybersecurity company, has identified fraudulent sites that are imitating the appearance of the official FIFA website with the same designcolors, navigation menus and even registration and purchase flows.

The objective is generate trust in users who enter these fraudulent sites. Once inside, victims are invited to register to access the supposed purchase of tickets or official products, as indicated in a press release.

It is the main complaint of cybercriminals, who seek to steal sensitive information such as names, emails, telephone numbers and passwords, as well as bank details when the victim begins the payment process on a fraudulent gateway.

“Cybercriminals take advantage of global events of great media interest to exploit the urgency, emotion and anxiety of users. In this case, searching for World Cup tickets or merchandise becomes the perfect bait to steal sensitive information,” said the Director of Research and Awareness of ESET Spain, Josep Albors.

“Among the sites detected are domains that incorporate the word ‘FIFA’ along with variations associated with the 2026 World Cup and extensions such as .shop, .store or .site.”

ESET notes that This technique is known as ‘typosquatting’ and is based on the use of web addresses very similar to legitimate ones through small changes or additions, which for the common user can be quite complicated to verify or understand.

These scam sites are composed of several pages with designs and mechanics similar to those that any user can find on the official website as a strategy organized and defined by the attackers as a complex structure.

FIFA reminds that tickets for all phases of the tournament are available through the FIFA.com/tickets website. ESET recommends users take extreme caution before making any payment When purchasing tickets for the 2026 World Cup, you should always check the URL address, avoid clicking on ads or promoted links, be wary of exclusive or overly attractive offers, do not reuse passwords and carefully review any payment gateway.