World Cup fever becomes a trap This is how brazenly ticket scammers are ripping off fans and families right now

World Cup tickets, zoo discounts or chocolate museums: more and more fake websites are luring people in with supposed bargains and putting buyers under pressure. If you don't look carefully, you can quickly lose money and credit card details.

The Ice Hockey World Cup has just begun, and the Football World Cup is already in the starting blocks. But it's not just fans who are eagerly awaiting such major events; fraudsters also see them as an opportunity to make a profit and deceive fans. In the past week, the BACS has received several reports of World Cup-related websites that copy the official ticket sales points. However, criminals also use every opportunity to trick people looking for tickets, regardless of major events.

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For example, fake ticket or fan article websites are created for this purpose. The offers often seem so temptingly cheap that it is hard to resist. Or tickets are offered that are no longer available on the regular market or are only available in very limited quantities. The price asked is paid in the expectation of fast delivery. Disappointment follows quickly, however, as the tickets ordered never arrive or are invalid.

Fraud in the Zurich Zoo look

But other events and excursion destinations are not spared from fake ticket websites either. One example that is repeatedly reported to the BACS is fake websites for Zurich Zoo. What is particularly insidious is that buyers are deliberately put under pressure to make a decision. They are promised a seemingly generous discount of 40%, but only if they commit themselves within a few minutes. To reinforce this time pressure, a clock is displayed that relentlessly counts down. Users are constantly reminded of how little time they supposedly have left to benefit from the discount.

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The impression of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is intended to create fear of missing out. Here, the fraudsters use the well-known phenomenon "Fear of Missing Out" (FoMO) or the "fear of missing out". Incidentally, the timer does not stop at zero after the time has elapsed, but jumps back to 15 minutes and starts counting again. If you want to buy the tickets, you have to enter your credit card details and become a victim of a phishing attack.

Sweet temptation, bitter trap at the Lindt Museum

Chocolate lovers are also being targeted by ticket fraudsters. In a recent case, the fraudsters copied the website of the Lindt Chocolate Museum. A corresponding fraudulent website has already been reported to the BACS twice. What is special about these cases is that the perpetrators specifically take advantage of users' typing errors. In one case, for example, the incorrect spelling "chochlate", i.e. without the "e", was used in the domain name instead of "chocolate".

In the second case, an "s" was added to the word "chocolate". The fraudsters speculate that the victims will make a typo and thus end up on a deceptively genuine-looking fraud page without realizing it. In these cases, too, credit card details had to be entered to order the ticket. To make the deception perfect, the victims are redirected to a separate page of a payment service provider after the purchase, as is also the case with legitimate stores.

Ticket fraud via a dating platform

However, the BACS also regularly receives reports of ticket fraud sites in connection with so-called romance scams. Scammers use dating platforms to get hold of their victims. The fraudsters pretend to be likeable and attractive people and quickly establish an emotional connection with their victims. Within a short time, they suggest a meeting at a concert or theater and send a link to a supposed ticket store for concerts or theater performances in Switzerland. At first glance, the website to which the link leads looks serious and professional. However, a glance at the official website of the cultural institution in question quickly reveals that the performance listed is not currently on the program. Here too, victims are tricked into entering their credit card details.