Thousands of fans from soccer-mad China victims of Fifa World Cup scam
About 30 Chongqing tourists denied entry to the Argentina v Iceland match
More than 3,500 of the more than 10,000 counterfeit 2018 World Cup tickets available globally have been sold to Chinese soccer fans, according to Chinese media.
The online news portal from western China, Thecover.cn, referred to a Russian embassy notice on social media, which said its government was investigating a Russian company for selling more than 3,500 counterfeit tickets to Chinese tourists and travel agents.
The embassy notice said the “Anzhi Company” from Russia claimed to have obtained written approval to sell tickets from the World Cup Russia organising committee but the letter turned out to be fake, according to Thecover.cn.
The story has gone viral on overseas Chinese media websites, but received only limited coverage in mainland China. The notice has since been removed from the embassy’s social media channel.
Yang Jun, a travel planner with China Youth Travel in Sichuan province, told Thecover.cn that more than 1,000 of the fake tickets were sold in Chengdu alone.