Police officers are already dealing with dozens of cases of fraudsters with tickets to the World Cup in Hockey

These are mostly criminals offering tickets on the Internet, often at twice the price, either original but sold to several people at once, or outright fake.

“There are dozens of cases where people bought a fake ticket. The biggest mistake is to buy tickets outside of official distribution. Firstly, it is risky and secondly, people are not sure that they will even get into the hall with such a ticket,” Václav Písecký, head of the cybercrime department of the Prague police, told Novinkám on Monday.

The streets around the O2 arena will be closed during the Ice Hockey World Cup. “Take public transport,” urge the organizers

Homemade

So far, he did not want to say whether the police have already charged any of the fraudsters and which of them they are looking for, also because they do not want to scare the perpetrators and intend to track them down, including entire groups of these fraudsters.

“We are going after the sellers of fake tickets. We will try to catch them during the championship,” said Písecký.

According to him, the police are contacted either by the injured persons interested in tickets themselves, or at the same time, the investigators are actively looking for possible fraudulent attempts to sell tickets and groups of criminals who focus on this criminal activity.

Písecký outlined that most often the police now deal with cases of fake tickets and forgeries for the hockey championship or fraud with real tickets, when the perpetrators sell one such original over the Internet to dozens of interested parties.

According to Písecky, the most cases of fake tickets relate to matches of the Czech hockey team, which are the most popular

However, only the first of these buyers will get into the hall for the match.

“From the logic of the matter, we are now dealing with more cases of fake tickets, because for those that have been sold multiple times, it is only discovered when entering the hall,” the head of the computer crime department pointed out, adding that, in his opinion, it will be clearer how many tickets were fake or sold to multiple people after the first matches of the hockey championship.

According to Písecky, the most cases of fake tickets relate to matches of the Czech hockey team, which are the most popular.

“But it’s not exactly a rule, there are other teams. There is a similar problem in Ostrava, where it is also being solved, we have a joint coordination,” stated the criminologist.

He expects the greatest onslaught only during the championship, which takes place from May 10 to 26, when crime investigators and police officers on the spot will want to disperse gangs of counterfeit ticket dealers and Internet fraudsters.

Due to fraudsters, the police officers also cooperate with official ticket sellers from the TicketPortal and TicketMaster networks, who also warn against looking for tickets elsewhere on the Internet or even in front of the hall.

Fans risk not only the disappointment of not being able to see the match at all, but also thousands of damages.

“Furthermore, by reselling tickets bought on these portals, someone violates their rules and commits a misdemeanor,” warned Prague police spokeswoman Eva Kropáčová.

Also because the police expect problems with fake or repeatedly sold tickets right at the time of the matches, they will have in front of the Prague O2 arena a special mobile operations center Jupiter, which is a truck with a kind of mobile police office.

“We will actually have a reception area and an office right on the spot, where people can come to us and tell us what happened to them,” explained Kropáčová.

“We are then able to interrogate the victims right there, and the police officers from the cybercrime department will then provide electronic traces on the spot so that we can find out who sold these tickets, through whom it went. And, of course, we will try to eliminate the further sale of such tickets,” she added.

People cannot count on the fact that if they report the purchase of a fake ticket on the spot, that the police will then secure their entry to the match

She added that this is a complete novelty and an effort to ensure the elimination of fraudsters as quickly as possible and their continuation in criminal activity.

“In this way, we get information about what is happening immediately, which is better than if we received a notification about a fake ticket after, say, a week,” Kropáčová added.

According to her, people cannot count on the fact that if they report the purchase of a fake ticket on the spot, that the police will then secure them entry to the match.

The first onslaught and more cases of fake tickets can be expected as early as Friday, May 10, on the first day of the championship, when the Czech hockey players will play their opening match against Finland in the evening in Prague, and in Ostrava in the afternoon the Slovak national team will start the championship with a match against Germany, whose matches were also enormous interest.

Police for the World Cup in Hockey: No specific threat yet, but the security situation is worse than last time

Homemade