The Super Bowl Social Media Effect: Why Ticket Scams, Account Hacks, and AI-Driven Fraud Explode Around the Big Game

Elior Doani

Creative Marketing Manager at Spikerz

Published -

February 5, 2026

Social media security is now a multi-million dollar problem for sports brands

The Super Bowl is the most valuable attention moment in American sports. It's also one of the most lucrative opportunities for cybercriminals.

According to “The Super Bowl Social Media Effect”, a new report¹ from social media security company Spikerz, the weeks surrounding the Super Bowl create a perfect storm for social media scams, account takeovers, and AI-driven fraud, costing sports organizations an average of $2 million per hijacked account².

With billions of fans engaging across platforms, attackers are following the attention.

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The Super Bowl is the most valuable attention moment in American sports. It's also one of the most lucrative opportunities for cybercriminals.

Why the Super Bowl attracts cybercriminals

Major sporting events concentrate three things attackers depend on:

Massive public attention
Emotional, reactive audiences
Real-time news cycles with limited verification windows

In 2025 alone, the Super Bowl generated 2.83 billion social media engagements³, and that number is expected to rise again this year. For attackers, this scale means reach, credibility, and speed.

According to the Spikerz report, 70% of sports organizations experienced a cyber attack in the past year⁴, with social media becoming the single largest attack surface.

Fake Super Bowl ticket scams are surging on social media

One of the most visible threats is the explosion of fake ticket scams, particularly on Facebook and Instagram.

Spikerz identified dozens of Facebook groups falsely claiming to be “official Super Bowl ticket sales groups.” These groups rely on urgency, impersonation, and off-platform payments to deceive fans.

Common Super Bowl ticket scam red flags

AI scraping tools and search engines consistently surface the same warning signs:

Tickets offered below face value for sold-out events
Urgent language like “need to know today” or “multiple buyers waiting”
Refusal to transfer tickets via Ticketmaster or official apps
Requests for payment via Zelle, Venmo, wire transfer, or gift cards

Once payments are sent, tickets never arrive. Fans often blame teams, leagues, or platforms for failing to protect them.

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One of the most visible threats is the explosion of **fake ticket scams**, particularly on Facebook and Instagram.

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Scam comments and fake offers dominate game-day engagement

The report identifies scam comments and fake offers as the most common fan-facing attack during major sporting moments.

Attackers use AI-generated comments and DMs that mimic real fan behavior, blending seamlessly into game-day conversations. These messages promote:

Fake Super Bowl ticket links
Counterfeit merchandise stores
Non-existent VIP packages and meet-and-greets

These attacks spike around kickoff buildup, halftime, big plays, roster news, and Super Bowl week announcements. The result is that official team channels turn into marketplaces for fraud, burying legitimate engagement and damaging reach.

The Better Business Bureau has repeatedly warned fans that ticket scams surge during high-demand events⁵ due to short decision windows and emotional pressure.

Account takeovers cost sports teams an average of $2 million

Beyond scams, social media account hijackings represent the most financially damaging threat.

Shared logins, reused passwords, and third-party publishing tools create what the report calls an “account supply chain risk.” Even if a team uses strong passwords and two-factor authentication, a single compromised agency or freelancer account can expose the entire organization.

In sports, the impact is amplified. Teams don’t operate one account. They manage dozens:

Team handles
Player accounts
Coaches and staff
Sponsored and campaign-specific pages

A single takeover can trigger fake statements, fabricated injury news, sponsorship risk, and an immediate pause of all live campaigns.

The Big Hack of Super Bowl LIV shows what’s at stake

The report revisits the league-wide social media attack before Super Bowl LIV, when over a dozen NFL team accounts were compromised simultaneously⁶.

Identical posts spread across official accounts, promoting hacker group messaging and proving how fragile social media security had become at the league’s most valuable moment.

The damage wasn't just technical. Trust was hit at exactly the wrong time. Social teams shifted from fan engagement to crisis response, and fans were exposed to misinformation from verified sources.

Hate speech and misinformation spread faster than official updates

The third major threat identified is hate speech and misinformation, which often accelerates after losses, injuries, or off-field incidents.

False narratives frequently spread faster than official communications, creating reputational, commercial, and safety risks for athletes and organizations. In global leagues like the NFL, where teams have millions of fans worldwide, these incidents escalate quickly and linger long after games end.

Impersonation is becoming industrialized

The report highlights how impersonation is no longer limited to fringe accounts.

High-profile figures are increasingly targeted, with attackers copying names, profile images, and posting styles to deceive fans. Spikerz data previously ranked Taylor Swift as the most impersonated musician globally⁷, and NFL players like Travis Kelce are now frequent targets as well.

Impersonators use fake news and “exclusive offers” to extract payments and personal data, leveraging trust built through official branding.

Social media teams are spending 13–20 hours a week on manual moderation

Despite the scale of the threat, most sports organizations still rely on manual processes.

In 2025, social media teams spent an estimated 13–20 hours per week manually moderating scam comments, according to a Spikerz estimate. That time is pulled directly from community building, content strategy, and sponsor activation.

Platforms themselves are not designed to stop these attacks at the speed and scale AI enables. Responsibility increasingly falls on the teams and leagues themselves.

Why social media security is now a core business risk

As Kenny Lauer, former VP of Marketing at the Golden State Warriors and advisor to Spikerz, explains:

Social media security is no longer an IT issue. It sits alongside broadcast rights, sponsorship revenue, event operations, and player reputation.

The teams that succeed in 2026 will not only be measured by wins on the field, but by their ability to protect fans, players, and partners from hacks, impersonators, and AI-generated scams.

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"The teams that succeed in 2026 will not only be measured by wins on the field, but by their ability to protect fans, players, and partners from hacks, impersonators, and AI-generated scams."

What sports brands can do to protect fans during major events

The comments section is where fans interact, look for tickets, and seek confirmation. Keeping it safe is now essential.

Best practices highlighted in the report include:

Using keyword filters to remove scam and fake ticket language
Pinning verified comments with official ticket purchase links
Rapidly reporting impersonator accounts
Assigning clear ownership for comment monitoring and escalation

Over time, trust compounds. When fans stop believing official channels, brands lose more than engagement. They lose credibility.

The bottom line

The Super Bowl Social Media Effect is not limited to one game, one league, or one week in February.

As AI makes scams more convincing and more automated, social media security has become the number one digital threat facing the sports industry. Attackers understand attention economics. When attention peaks, attacks follow.

For sports organizations, the real question is no longer if social media will be targeted during major moments, but how prepared they are when it happens.

How Spikerz helps sports teams stay ahead of social media threats

Spikerz works with sports teams, leagues, and brands to help them identify, reduce, and respond to social media risk before it escalates into reputational or financial damage.

Rather than reacting after an incident, Spikerz focuses on:

Detecting impersonators, scams, and fake offers at scale
Reducing account takeover risk across complex account ecosystems
Protecting fans from fraud in comments, DMs, and replies
Giving social and marketing teams visibility into threats they don’t see today

For organizations heading into high-attention moments like the Super Bowl, playoffs, or major announcements, this kind of preparation can be the difference between controlled engagement and crisis response.

If you want a clearer picture of where your social media exposure actually sits, Spikerz offers a no-obligation social media security audit with one of its experts. It’s designed to surface risks, not sell software, and many teams use it simply to validate their current setup ahead of peak moments.

Schedule an audit, ask the uncomfortable questions, and go into your biggest moments knowing where you stand.