By Canadian Press

Rise in popularity of marathons across Canada attracting scammers online

Sep 3, 2024 | 11:50 AM

MONTREAL — Leila Mekki Berrada, new to marathon running, had set her sights on Montreal’s big race at the end of September. But she wasn’t prepared to get swindled — twice — before securing a spot in the sold-out marathon.

As marathon running increases in popularity across the country, scammers are seeing an easy way to make money from people who are inexperienced with the system to transfer bibs — the name for the official number that identifies each racer.

“I just started (running) a few months ago, so I was very excited to join my friends in the 10-kilometre (race),” Mekki Berrada said about the Marathon Beneva de Montréal, whose race weekend is Sept. 20-22. But she said her experience looking for a bib left her “disgusted.”

She found a Facebook group on which people were selling bibs for the sold-out race. Sometimes, racers who register get injured ahead of the marathon or have to pull out unexpectedly. Mekki Berrada gave $80 to a scammer posing as a runner trying to sell a bib. Then she transferred $50 to another fraudster, but thankfully this time her bank noticed a discrepancy between the name of the bib’s seller and the name on the email account, and blocked the transaction.

Alexandre Ratthé, executive producer of the Marathon Beneva de Montréal, says the organization has so far heard from 20 to 25 people claiming to have been the victim of scammers ahead of race weekend.

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“Most of the fraud comes from false accounts on social media or even false Facebook groups that have been created by someone who has bad intentions,” he said, pointing out that some of the fraudulent activity has occurred on a group made to look like the official page run by the marathon.

Being asked to send funds directly to someone claiming to be selling a bib is a red flag, Ratthé said. Instead, he added, runners in the Montreal marathon and the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon — race weekend is Oct. 18-20 — should be buying bibs on a platform called Race Roster. There, buyers can verify if a bib is really registered in the seller’s name.

Edmonton’s George Alexandrino secured his spot for the Toronto race, but he went through two scammers first. He met someone on Facebook who showed him a screenshot of a QR code and requested payment by e-transfer. Alexandrino did not know to verify the transfer through Race Roster and sent the money.

“I sent him $60 and he just never did anything. He disappeared,” Alexandrino said.

The Canadian Press reached out to TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon for comment but did not hear back.

Jay Glassman, race director for the Toronto Marathon — which is separate from the city’s waterfront marathon, says he heard of six cases of people being defrauded out of bibs during the latest edition of the race, held in May. But he says there may have been many more people too shy to come forward.

The Toronto Marathon also uses Race Roster as an official registration and transfer platform.

Ratthé says the scheme is new to the Canadian running industry, propelled by the growing popularity of the sport. Last year, the Marathon Beneva de Montréal featured 20,000 runners and sold out weeks before race day. This year there will be 27,000 runners, and it sold out early in the summer.

The growing popularity of the race, and the fact it sells out quickly, presents opportunities for fraudsters to exploit people who want to participate but missed their chance to nab a spot.

Ratthé says staff have been warning people through social media and newsletters. He says his team flags suspicious Facebook accounts everyday to the platform’s parent company, Meta, but says they are told the fake groups aren’t a violation of the company’s policy.

“On social media, it’s very hard to get justice,” he said. However, he says he has not contacted the police.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

If runners show up with fake bibs this year, Ratthé says they will be offered a discount for next year’s race but will not be allowed to participate this time around.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press