Fake World Cup website scamming fans by selling tickets for up to £23,000 on official Fifa-looking website
Fifa announced legal action against Viagogo this week over its sale of World Cup tickets
COLD-HEARTED con men are attempting to sell bogus World Cup tickets for up to £23,000 on fake Fifa-branded websites.
England's three group stage games are among the fake tickets being advertised online for up to £3,200.
An investigation by the Daily Mail found various websites selling tickets to the final in Moscow for £14,050 as well as packages to the 'Tsar's Lounge.'
Advertised for £23,000 and above, the packages are meant to allow wealthy football fans to meet Russian politicians while enjoying a 'hostess' service.
Russian regulator Roskomnadzor have blocked hundreds of websites but dozens more are still live.
Kaspersky Lab, the Russian online internet security company, said: "Tickets for the Cup are officially sold only through Fifa's website and nowhere else.
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"Having paid for a ticket on some side platform you're almost guaranteed to lose both your money and ticket."
One of the bogus accounts that claims to be affiliated with Fifa is https://worldcup2018.me/
The sophisticated website, with guides to all of the stadiums, claims to still have tickets to most of the group stage games.
When an undercover Russian journalist called the website for the Mail, a woman claimed: "We are Fifa's official agency that is selling the tickets unofficially. [It is done this way] because there are too many swindlers now trying to forge tickets.
"He have original tickets. We bought them from our own quota: we had a special booking, an internal arrangement with Fifa. It was at the beginning of December [2017]."
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It comes after Fifa announced legal action against Viagogo, the major online ticket-seller, on Tuesday over the sale of World Cup tickets on its website.
Fifa said it would be cancelling any tickets bought from Viagogo after receiving "numerous complaints" from consumers.
Fans who had bought tickets from the website would be turned away, Fifa said.
A statement from football's world governing body said: "Over the past months, Fifa has received numerous complaints from individuals, consumer protection bodies and other market players over the opaque and deceptive business conduct of Viagogo AG."
Fifa has filed criminal complaints against the company in Switzerland, where both are based.