HOUSTON – The FIFA World Cup 2026 is coming to Houston — and so are the scammers.
With tickets ranging from $205 to nearly $1,000 — and that’s for the cheap seats — criminals know desperate fans are willing to look past red flags for a “killer deal.”
For more information on the scams to look out for ahead of the big matches, KPRC 2’s Michael Horton spoke with Kayla Ramsey, who serves as the office manager at Houston Ticket Store & Midtown Tickets and is known as the “Ticket Queen” by Houston’s sports fans and concertgoers.
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People are traveling far and wide to the Houston area to catch the World Cup action, and the scammers are no exception. Ramsey said scammers will even come from out of town, hoping to rip off unsuspecting fans.
“The scammers come out in full force when high profile events come to town,” Ramsey said.
The scams you’ll see
With the emergence of online shopping and digitally encrypted tickets as the industry standard, Ramsey said the tactics employed by con artists are familiar but increasingly sophisticated.
“Fake tickets being made,” Ramsey said. “[Scammers] say that they have the tickets, and the regular consumer is just too trusting nowadays. They’ll send them money, blindly, to a Zelle number or a CashApp, and then the person doesn’t even respond anymore. I’ve seen that several times.”
For those who prefer the old-school, physical paper ticket, Ramsey said the scammers are still in touch with the classic methods, too. FIFA will only be selling mobile tickets.
“I’ve seen the fake paper printout ticket several times that has a made-up [seat] section, a made-up row. And they try to duplicate as much as possible, but most venues don’t even have paper tickets anymore,” she added.
Another fake ticket method she has seen included screenshots of fake tickets:
“I’ve seen screenshots of fake tickets. I don’t know if it’s AI, I don’t know who’s making them. But they try hard, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference. But usually, I can tell right away if it’s a fake ticket,” she said.
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What gives a fake away
Red flags Ramsey said to look out for include the following:
- Barcode differences (missing numbers, incorrect formatting)
- Lettering differences (fonts or style not matching official tickets)
- Wrong pricing on the ticket
- Color issues (off-color or colors bleeding)
- Perforation or material inconsistencies (especially on older “hard stock” tickets)
- Venue name placement errors (wrong location on ticket)
Some fakes are shockingly convincing. Ramsey recalled extremely well-made counterfeit Super Bowl tickets, from the New England Patriots’ historic overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons in Houston in 2017.
“When the Superbowl was here, there was some fake tickets that it they didn’t come through our office, but another ticket broker had showed me, and they were really, really good. Really well made. Put it that way.”
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The big do’s and don’ts
Here are Ramsey’s main rules for buying tickets:
DO:
- Buy from a local ticket broker you can verify.
- Use a credit card so you can dispute the transaction if needed.
- Get a receipt that shows where the tickets came from.
- Trust only friends you know personally if buying secondhand.
DON’T:
- Send money through Zelle, Cash App, or Venmo to strangers.
- Buy paper tickets — FIFA will only use mobile tickets.
- Buy from anyone “on the street,” even outside the stadium.
“I’ve seen people come from out of town just to work these events and scam people,” she said.
If a deal seems too good to be true, she advises:
“Ask for a receipt from FIFA where they bought them or where they got them from. Ask for a receipt.”
And on verifying receipts:
“I haven’t seen [a fake receipt] yet, but usually it’ll be sent in an email, and it’ll have FIFA’s email on there. Of course, they can probably duplicate that, absolutely. But nine times out of 10, you might have to call FIFA, and they can confirm it or not.”
The safest path
Buying through trusted friends or a reputable Houston broker is your best chance at avoiding a scam, Ramsey said. The fewer strangers involved in your transaction, the better.
“If you know a friend that actually has tickets, and you know them well, and they say, ‘Hey, I have four tickets, but I’m only using two. Would you like to buy two from me?’ That’s totally fine.”
The most critical factor of that advice, though, is trust. Limit this philosophy to trustworthy, longtime friends, rather than a stranger you have a drink with or a very “friendly sounding” guy on the street outside NRG.
“Be careful out there,” Ramsey said. ”Joe or Mike on the streets? No, I wouldn’t trust it at all. Not even at the venue. When the World Cup comes to Houston, I would be leery about buying tickets out there, unless they are can prove that they work for a local ticket broker or somebody can vouch for them.”