Mexicans denounce millionaire scam for tickets and lodging in QatarMediotiempo

One month before the start of the World Cup of Qatar 2022a group of almost 30 Mexican fans denounce that they were victims of a great fraudwhich amounts to more than half a million pesos for tickets and lodging for the event. Mediotiempo was able to interview one of those affectedwho reported the case and the investigation that he himself, together with the other people involved, have carried out to detect the fraud of which they were victims.

Mario Urrea told how a person identified as Bernardo Benjamín Revelo Oñate orchestrated a scam in which he offered dozens of people complete lodging packages and tickets for the matches of the Mexican National Team in Qatar 2022.

“This person started getting into some groups, we think he did it through friends because some transfers were made for other people. Basically the large number of people scammed was because offering an advance payment to set aside those digital tickets and others with lodging. The lodging is armored because Qatar does not allow you to stay without having tickets, what he did was rent and offer rooms in a villa that he already had with tickets to the three matches in Mexico to offer complete packages: lodging and tickets”.

Bernardo Benjamin Revelo Onate also involved Óscar Daniel González Oñate, whom he identified as his brother for making several deposits by the victims who until now amounts to 511 thousand 780 pesos.

“He sent you his voter card which is legal because we investigated it, there is no spoofed identity. He sent us allalso a sheet where he was registered as alderman for the municipality of Celayahe sent information about the lodging and the raffled tickets that he had obtained.

“That’s where the pressure part came in, he told you to deposit him because he was going to sell them to other people, because the cards, because his brother… In my case he came to my house to receive part of the money, there are people from Los Angeles who made deposits for him through western union, others from Tijuana, Zacatecas, Reynosa, Laredo, Villahermosa , Queretaro, Mexico City. In some cases he stayed to see people in Querétaro in plazas, he went with his girlfriend and took everything for the money. This escalated to very big things, we are too many. Yo I posted this on my networks on Thursday and they were added, we do not know the dimension of this”, said Urrea, whom he visited at his house to receive part of the money. Mario’s case is a total of 100 thousand pesos.

the same Mariowho has attended several World Cups, explained the complexity what in each World Cup is held for tickets and lodging; for this reason the creation of groups of friends who sell and resell packages at the exorbitant prices of the agencies that in the case of our country are: MATCH Hospitality Mexico (Zest Events), Lusso Travel and Mundomex.

“All World Cups are made by lottery. In the end, FIFA raffles the tickets to millions of people and few benefit, the vast majority of tickets are awarded to operators what they offer them at very high prices including very expensive hotels, out of reach. In this context, Mexico is in third place in the countries that take the most fans to a World Cupthe way in which we try to buy tickets is how everyone does it, as it has been done all the time, because many will say that how did we come up with it, but that is how tickets are negotiated between groups and friends”.

In the case of Urrea, the contact originated in July when in a post Facebook detected that an acquaintance had purchased tickets, this person contacted him with Bernardo Benjamín Revelo Oñate and there joined the WhatsApp group that Bernardo created to keep everyone informed of each step to follow. The same ‘modus operandi’ has been seen with other people more.

“A person published a lodgingthen the contact via Messenger from Facebook and I ask him if he is available and he says no.but he tells me that he would pass on my profile to another person who does have one and curiously he contacts me. We detected that other people also indicated that it was like that, we believe that he has accomplices”.

one more case

Along with Mario there is the case of a fan who reserved her identity for personal reasons. this fanatic dstated that he made a deposit of 82 thousand pesos for lodging. The accused kept in touch through calls, WhatsApp and video calls. He even showed a very attentive and close attitude to resolve any doubts from the fan, who in June began looking for contacts for accommodation in groups of followers and there he obtained Bernardo Benjamín Revelo Oñate.

The call of the FMF

In the past month of April, the Mexican Soccer Federationjointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Consumer Protection Office, Match Hospitality, He called on the fans not to be surprised and only buy tickets and travel packages for the 2022 World Cup through authorized means.

One from Luisapresident of the FMFhighlighted: “The recommendation is that buy the tickets, the accommodations, by the official means. Today that we are going to have the eight stadiums in the same city, it will not be like in other events where people will come to see how they will enter to the stadiums or how it will be accommodated. Here everything will have to be previously acquired, otherwise there will be no way to even be able to enter the country,” the leader said at a press conference a few months ago.

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