A team of cyberpolice from New Scotland Yard have helped to save tens of thousands of football fans from being duped into buying bogus tickets for the 2010 World Cup finals. Fifa, football’s world governing body, called in the London-based e-Crime Unit to crack down on the internet fraudsters.
The Times has learnt that the unit has tracked down and closed more than 100 sites so far, with as many as 20 based in Britain and the rest spread around the world. But Fifa executives fear that these fraudsters are only the pioneers of an internet crimewave that will become more severe as the World Cup approaches.
It is not only English fans who stand to suffer, after the national team’s qualification for the finals, but thousands more around the world, with South Africa expecting up to 500,000 supporters from the 32 participating nations.
Fifa has no precise figures, but it is thought that thousands of fans may already have handed over money for tickets that do not exist. But New Scotland Yard’s cyberpolice, who work from an undisclosed location in London, are thought to have saved many more from parting with their cash and are leading the chase to make sure South Africa is not flooded next year with supporters holding worthless tickets and with no games to go to.
Once they have tracked a site, the e-Crime Unit alerts police and authorities in other countries to go after the fraudsters by having the sites shut down.
The sort of controls that police could exert on old-fashioned ticket touts when England were last in a World Cup final, in 1966, have been consigned to history. The internet is now the preferred mode of operation, not just for touts trying to hike up prices, but also fraudsters who offer tickets for sale online and take the money by credit card, only for the tickets to be useless or never arrive.
The e-Crime Unit recorded significant successes during Wimbledon in June, tracing and closing a number of bogus websites, including one that was almost a replica of the official tournament website and selling tickets for the final for £2,499. One man paid £11,000 for tickets, but he never saw them or his money again.
The Wimbledon operation pales against the size of the World Cup finals, which kick off on June 11. Fifa expects to sell more than three million tickets for the 64 matches and England fans have already signalled their determination to be there.
In the first batch of 630,000 official tickets to be put on offer, England fans snapped up almost 43,000, third only to South Africa, which accounted for 301,000, and fans in the United States, who asked for more than 73,000. But those tickets were on sale before England confirmed qualification and demand is expected to soar when the next batches go on sale.
“Our work with New Scotland Yard is yet another example that we are taking serious steps to stop unauthorised entities from selling tickets to the 2010 Fifa World Cup,” Jérôme Valcke, the Fifa general secretary, told The Times last night.
“We applaud the work of New Scotland Yard in its efforts to ensure that our common goal is to target and shut down illegitimate entities or unauthorised tickets. We simply cannot accept that true fans are being cheated in this way.”
Tickets so far have been sold exclusively through the Fifa website and the game’s world governing body warned fans last night to be sure they are buying only from authorised companies selling official tour packages or tickets.
(Source: Timesonline.co.uk)
