In the coming months, soccer fans across the globe will use our apps to connect around the FIFA World Cup 2026™. While most will be rooting for their favorite teams and players, unfortunately there may be bad actors who will try to lure people into scams or harass and abuse others — offline and online.
Before the competition kicks off, we’re sharing more details about the steps we’re taking to combat scams and keep fans and players safe.
Combating Scams
Scammers are constantly evolving their tactics and so are we. That’s why we recently announced new investments in advanced AI, tools for people to spot and avoid scams, and partnerships with law enforcement and industry peers to take action and hold scammers accountable.
Global sporting events can lead to an increase in fraud, like ticketing scams, false offers of immigration processing, and misleading accommodations for those looking to travel to matches. We have dedicated teams monitoring and enforcing against accounts that attempt to target people with these scams and violate our policies.
We know scammers rarely target only one platform, so we’re working across industry to disrupt scam networks through the Global Signal Exchange (GSE) and Meta’s Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (FIRE). Meta collaborated with Visa through the GSE, to proactively disrupt cross-channel fraud. By providing timely and actionable scam intelligence, Visa’s Scam Disruption team facilitated Meta’s identification and dismantling of a network on Facebook that linked to spoofed websites that mimicked the FIFA World Cup 2026 official branding and promoted fake gambling content. These fraudulent websites advertised too-good-to-be-true win rates and attempted to lure people to provide personal or financial information.
We will continue to take action and work with our partners through our signal sharing programs to get ahead of evolving scam tactics in the lead-up to, during, and after the FIFA World Cup.
Educating Consumers
Starting this week, we’re launching a Facebook pop up notification that will remind people throughout the tournament to make sure they get tickets from verifiable sources. When people search for terms related to FIFA World Cup tickets on Facebook or visit related Groups, we’ll remind them what to look out for before buying tickets, and also share links to our reporting tool so they can report suspicious content or accounts.
We also continue to invest in consumer education along with our partners to help people learn how they can spot and avoid scams and stay safe online. We’re supporting partners like the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), Canada’s national fraud and cybercrime intake and coordination unit that supports counter fraud efforts across the country, and Stand Against Scams, on a national anti-scam awareness campaign led by the Canadian Anti‑Scam Coalition, to help fans stay informed and protected online.
We’re also partnering with Mexico’s Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO), to launch a creator-led campaign that raises awareness about common scams expected around the tournament, such as fake ticket sales and impersonation of official FIFA World Cup related websites.
Combating Abuse
We have clear rules against bullying and harassment, violent threats, and hateful conduct toward both players and fans. No one should be subject to this kind of abuse, and we remove this content when we find it. We use reports from our community and AI technology to proactively detect content that violates our policies. We also regularly report on our progress to enforce these policies. Between October and December 2025, we removed 2.6 million pieces of hateful content on Facebook and Instagram, and found more than 74% of it before anyone reported it to us.
We regularly speak to players, teams, and associations around the world to make sure they know about our latest safety policies and features, and we continue to listen carefully to their feedback.
In addition to detecting and removing violating content, we continue to develop and update features to help people stay safe on our apps. For example, on Facebook and Instagram, we’ve introduced features like Restrict and tag and mention controls to help reduce unwanted contact, comments, and tags. On Facebook, professional accounts can use Moderation Assist, an automation tool for controlling which comments appear on their Page or profile based on certain criteria like new comments with images or links.
People can also turn off DM requests on Instagram — meaning they won’t receive messages from anyone they don’t follow — and report potentially violating messages to us. However, some public figures have told us they want to leave DM requests on to hear from fans and other members of their community. That’s why we’ve developed additional safety tools.
Hidden Words: This Instagram safety feature automatically filters comments or DM requests containing offensive words, phrases, emojis, and spam content you don’t want to see. For comments, you can choose to hide “some” comments on your posts or “more” for even higher levels of protection. You can also customize your own Hidden Words list to filter out DM requests or comments that include those specific words. Facebook will be rolling out a similar setting for FIFA World Cup tournament athletes and teams to hide comments with potentially offensive content.
Limit Interactions: This feature, when turned on, temporarily restricts comments and DMs from specific groups of people, including those who don’t follow you or only recently followed you. This is particularly useful for public figures who experience sudden spikes of comments and DMs related to public events, like their performance in a soccer match.
Stronger Blocking and Abuse Prevention: In recent years, we’ve made it harder for abusers to reach people by simply creating a new profile. We’ve also rolled out nudges on Instagram that prompt people to reconsider before posting something that may be hurtful.
We’ll continue developing tools to protect our community, and work closely with officials to help keep our apps safe for players and fans.
