Beware of World Cup Online Scams

As the FIFA World Cup 2006 has gotten underway, we have witnessed an explosion of sites that claim to show the World Cup online for a nominal fee.

http://www.all-sports-tv.com/
http://www.watch-world-soccer.com/liveworldcup/
http://www.psee.tv/
http://www.pctvshack.com/ (the same as http://www.easypctv.com/)
http://www.inet-tv.us/
http://www.itsourgame.co.uk/

Buyer beware: these sites could be a scam. Take a look at these forums to read what people had to say about www.watch-football.tv.

You will notice many of these sites, while advertising that they show the World Cup via Google Ads, do not mention it on their site. Attempt to contact the site before signing up to explain where they get their rights from. We attempted to contact www.watch-football.tv and received no response.

Here is some insight as to the practicality of these sites showing the World Cup. ABC and ESPN paid a combined $40 million for the English rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup 2006 in the U.S. ABC and ESPN also paid $100 million for the rights to broadcast the World Cup in English-language in the U.S. until 2014. Univision has dished out $325 million for the 2010 and 2014 Spanish-language World Cup rights in the U.S.

For an authorized list of FIFA World Cup 2006 broadcasters and media licensees, click here. Chances are, if the site that claims to broadcast the World Cup is not listed there, then they are not legally allowed to show the World Cup or don't show it at all.

We invite our readers to comment on their experiences with such sites and if you know of any other sites that fall into this category, please let us and other viewers know by posting your comments.

We also invite sites to comment and divulge their rights for broadcasting the World Cup.