TRM Labs identified four scam wallets with under $1,700 combined, plus a World Cup token where 95% of supply went to 30+ wallets within a minute.
Alpha Score of 65 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, strong value, weak quality, moderate sentiment.
The FBI released a public service announcement on May 27 flagging more than 30 fraudulent websites tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The sites collect user data and sell fake tickets. On June 3, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department issued a separate alert covering ticket reselling fraud, fake merchandise, and pirated streaming sites. Both warnings came before the tournament kickoff on June 11.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs followed with its own June 11 report detailing four cryptocurrency wallets connected to ongoing scams. The total inflows across those addresses stood below $1,700 as of the tournament's opening. TRM expects those numbers to climb as fan engagement rises.
One Polygon wallet linked to a counterfeit ticketing operation collected roughly $1,562, almost all of it arriving on a single day in April. A second address, a Bitcoin wallet tied to a phishing page that remains live, has attracted no payments. A third Bitcoin address funneled small deposits between January and May into a custodial exchange after pitching supposed fixed-match results.
The Tokens: WCUP and $WORLDCUP
Blockchain analysis firm Bubblemaps identified a token called World Cup PvP (symbol: WCUP). Within a minute of its June 10 launch, more than 30 wallets acquired 95% of the supply. Several crypto influencers on X promoted the token without disclosing payment, and it reached a $50 million market cap on the same day. With just $536,000 in liquidity supporting a fully diluted valuation of $65 million, a coordinated dump by early buyers would leave retail holders with the losses.
TRM also flagged a second token, $WORLDCUP, listed on LBank. The project bills itself as a fan-made commemorative token with no FIFA affiliation. Its low liquidity and issuer-controlled supply create the same exit-risk profile common to meme coins.
Practical Advice from the FBI and Analysts
The FBI recommends typing fifa.com directly into the browser address bar rather than clicking search results. It also warns that legitimate FIFA URLs use the top-level domain .com, not .pub, .beer, or other unusual alternatives.
TRM Labs noted that scammers monitor seasonal events much like marketing teams do. A report advised checking a site's registration date via the ICANN lookup tool; any domain under a year old that claims to be a reliable vendor should raise a red flag.
The tournament is expected to attract about 6.5 million visitors, according to FIFA and WTO estimates, and contribute $40.9 billion to the global economy. That scale of activity draws fraud, and TRM expects new types to emerge during the event, including deepfake impersonations of FIFA officials and players, gambling scams, phishing via fake streaming sites, and additional token launches. Scammers also use cross-chain bridges to obscure transactions; roughly $1.9 billion has moved through such bridges in all recorded scam activity to date.
For ticket buyers, the advice from all involved institutions is consistent: purchase only through the FIFA website, avoid crypto payments on untrusted platforms, and verify the site's authenticity before entering personal or financial data.
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Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.