Researchers discovered 1,700 fake profiles related to the World Cup across social media
Fraudsters are leveraging the popularity of the World Cup to try to trick you. Researchers at cybersecurity firm Fortinet spotted 1,700 fake social media profiles across Facebook and Instagram using unofficial FIFA branding.
These accounts create real risks of fraudulent promotions and misinformation targeting football supporters eager to be part of the action. If successful, they could get hold of your personal information and use that to potentially impersonate you, gain access to your social media profiles, and drain your bank accounts.
Fortinet also found that more than 13,000 World Cup-themed websites were set up between January and May this year, with more than 100 of those online sites flagged as malicious or suspicious.
Similar to the social media profiles, they're designed to look legitimate, often copying FIFA branding to trick fans into handing over payment details and personal information for fake tickets, faulty merchandise, dodgy streaming sites, and more. To help halt these fraud attempts, platform owner Meta has released new protective features for Facebook and Instagram users.
A spokesperson for Meta wrote in a blog post: "Scammers are constantly evolving their tactics, and so are we. That’s why we recently announced new investments in advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI), tools for people to spot and avoid scams, and partnerships with law enforcement and industry peers to take action and hold scammers accountable.
"Global sporting events can lead to an increase in fraud, like ticketing scams, false offers of immigration processing, and misleading accommodations for those looking to travel to matches.
"We have dedicated teams monitoring and enforcing against accounts that attempt to target people with these scams and violate our policies."
If you're on Facebook and searching for World Cup tickets, you'll now see a new warning pop up on your screen. Meta has rolled out in-app notifications to alert fans about the risks of buying tickets from dodgy sources. The alerts will appear if you look up World Cup-related terms or browse Facebook Groups connected to the tournament.
Meta's new feature will also point you towards reporting tools if you spot anything suspicious. This will hopefully stop more scam attempts in their tracks.
Meta isn't tackling this alone either, they've teamed up with payment giant Visa to go after the fraudsters.
The partnership works through something called the Global Signal Exchange, which lets both companies share intelligence about scam operations.
It's already paying off, too. Visa's Scam Disruption team helped Meta track down and take apart a network on Facebook that was linking to fake websites pretending to be official FIFA World Cup 2026 pages.
These sites were pushing bogus gambling content, promising unrealistic win rates to lure users into sharing their financial details. Meta says it will keep working with partners to stay ahead of scammers throughout the tournament, using signal-sharing programmes to catch evolving tactics before and after matches.
If you're following World Cup coverage on Instagram, Meta has implemented notifications to help prevent unwanted comments, bullying, and harassment.
Met said: "We regularly speak to players, teams, and associations around the world to make sure they know about our latest safety policies and features, and we continue to listen carefully to their feedback.
"People can also turn off DM requests on Instagram — meaning they won’t receive messages from anyone they don’t follow — and report potentially violating messages to us."
In the feature, you have the option to filter words, phrases, emojis, and spam content you don't want to see. When toggled on, it temporarily restricts comments and DMs from specific groups of people, including those who don’t follow you or only recently followed you.
Not only could this protect against bullying, but it could also limit opportunities for fraudsters to reach out to you.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off June 11, with the final scheduled for July 19. Matches will be spread across 16 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
And this year is particularly notable as it's the biggest World Cup in history – 48 teams competing across 104 matches over 39 days, up from the 32-team, 64-match format used in previous tournaments. Many streaming hubs, including Roku, have launched official ways to catch all the action in one spot.