England fans with touts' tickets face being banned from the World Cup

England fans face being barred from World Cup stadiums if they buy tickets via unofficial websites which are selling seats at hugely inflated prices, the Standard has learned.

In a new crackdown, World Cup chiefs trying to combat the “scourge” of touts are using sophisticated techniques to catch fans who have not bought tickets through official channels.

Experts today said thousands of black market tickets are being touted online at way beyond face value — many being sold by organised gangs.

The sport’s rulers Fifa insist tickets should only be bought through them and not from people re-selling them on websites.

It is illegal to re-sell football tickets in the UK but the Standard has uncovered a website registered in London selling World Cup tickets for £1,495. World football bosses have employed a company called MATCH Services to “detect and deter” unauthorised ticket sales, cancelling en masse any they find have been bought through “unofficial” means.

The technological “arms race” be- tween touts and the football authorities means fans who buy black market tickets risk being denied entry to grounds.

Fifa’s main way of identifying tickets bought illegally is thought to be through “test purchases” from unofficial websites to trace where the tickets come from in order to link them to other tickets — which they can then cancel.

Experts said many touts use computer programs, or “bots”, as well as hundreds of different credit cards to buy in bulk. But they said it was almost impossible not to leave some sort of electronic trail. Fifa can then use the trail to wipe out hundreds of illegally sold tickets at a time.

Anti-ticket fraud expert Reg Walker, of consultants Iridium Security, said he even had evidence of UK touts boasting they had secured tickets from World Cup officials.

He told the Standard: “We know of an organised crime group in London using Brazil nationals to harvest tickets from other Brazilians for re-sale. They make them offers they can’t refuse.

“They get them from officials as well. We have got touts in the UK boasting they have tickets from Fifa and Uefa officials. It is absolutely frightening.”

Many websites selling tickets are based outside the UK and so are exempt from the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act which bans football ticket re-sales.

But many websites are fronts for crime gangs in the UK, said Mr Walker, and other laws, such as the Computer Misuse Act, could have been broken.

Evening Standard learned that all but one of the first 13 qualifying games have seen the official Fifa ticket allocation being sold out.

But numerous “secondary market” ticket agencies are selling seats for the games at far higher prices, meaning fans desperate to see England play face shelling out hundreds of pounds for tickets that should cost as little as £50.

The website WorldCup2014 Ticketnet is advertising tickets from £166 to £375 for a seat at England’s opening match with Italy at the Arena Amazonia in Manaus on June 14.

The same seller is asking for £283 to £495 for the England v Uruguay game in Sao Paulo five days later and £172 to £367 for the clash with Costa Rica at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte on June 24.

A site called Guarantee Tickets is selling seats for the opening game between Brazil and Croatia on June 12 for more than £2,200.

Another seller, football-best-tickets, is asking £2,000 for a VIP seat for England v Uruguay. Although all based abroad, the sites have UK-specific phone numbers and are targeting UK customers. There is no evidence that these websites are breaking the law.

MATCH Services said it was not aware of any Fifa or Uefa official being invol- ved in illegally selling tickets to touts.

Fifa said: “If evidence of such activity is presented we will of course investigate but we are not currently aware of this happening.” It added: “We cancel tickets discovered as illegally sold or re-sold, with the bearers risking denial of entry into World Cup matches.”