{"id":9070,"date":"2026-04-08T05:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T05:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/9070\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T05:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T05:13:08","slug":"scammers-sell-fake-london-marathon-spots-for-80-on-running-app-strava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/9070\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammers sell fake London Marathon spots for \u00a380 on running app Strava"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scammers are targeting runners desperate to secure places in major races, including the London Marathon, with promises to sell them entries that don\u2019t exist for as much as \u00a380.<\/p>\n

Fraudsters are creating fake accounts on social media websites like popular running app Strava<\/a> and posing as injured athletes in an attempt to lure victims to transfer them cash in return for entries.<\/p>\n

Entries into some of the major global marathons are becoming increasingly difficult to get places for, with 1,133,813 people from the UK and across the globe applying in the public ballot for this year\u2019s London Marathon<\/a>, which will have just under 60,000 runners.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

And scammers are using the increased popularity of such races as a way to capitalise and trick people into sending them cash.<\/p>\n

Using Strava alone, The i Paper found multiple scammers who claimed to have places at the London Marathon later this month that they could transfer \u2013 even though the race organisers confirmed to us that entries cannot be moved to other runners.<\/p>\n

The fraudsters were found in public Strava groups that are used by runners to share tips and also advertise legitimate race transfers, where these are allowed.<\/p>\n

But the profiles advertising the spots had very few followers, didn\u2019t appear to be actively participating in running and asked runners to contact them via WhatsApp to buy their supposed spaces.<\/p>\n

The i Paper contacted multiple of these accounts via WhatsApp and each person asked for a bank transfer of around \u00a380 to sell their spaces.<\/p>\n

\"\"A post by one of the scammers claiming to be able to transfer a marathon spot on running app Strava. The identity has been removed in case it impersonates a real person<\/p>\n

Some tried to claim they had suffered injuries which meant they couldn\u2019t do the event.<\/p>\n

A scammer claiming they could transfer a space for London Marathon said they would need an email address and full name to transfer the spot, despite transfers being banned. They said to have got the place via ballot, and sent bank details for cash to be sent to.<\/p>\n

When asked about whether the entry would be transferred to the name put forward, they said \u201cyes of course\u201d, despite London Marathon organisers confirming to The i Paper that this was not possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"A scammer claims injury is the reason behind them selling a race spot<\/p>\n

\"\"An account claims to be able to transfer a London Marathon space \u2013 which organisers insist is not allowed<\/p>\n

\"\"The scammer asked for \u00a379 to be sent to them, before sending bank details<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for London Marathon Events said: \u201cAll places in the TCS London Marathon are strictly non\u2011transferable. Our terms and conditions of entry make clear that participants cannot swap places or allow another person to use their running number. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll entrants agree to these conditions when registering. Anyone found to be in breach of these rules may face a lifetime ban from the TCS London Marathon and all other events organised by London Marathon Events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is misleading for anyone to suggest that a TCS London Marathon place can be sold or transferred. There are no circumstances in which an entry can be passed to another person. We strongly advise anyone wishing to take part in a future TCS London Marathon to apply through the official channels, details of which can be found at tcslondonmarathon.com.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar scams were also found on Facebook. In one group, for people trying to get entries to the Valencia Marathon \u2013 a race popular with elite and high-level club runners \u2013 scammers were claiming to have up to four entries available to sell for \u00a380 each.<\/p>\n

One scam account messaged by The i Paper produced a fake ticket when asked for evidence they had an entry, which said runners would need to \u201cscan your ticket at the front door\u201d despite the event being an entirely outdoor marathon.<\/p>\n

\"\"A fake race entry for Valencia Marathon, offered by a scammer as proof of entry<\/p>\n

When confronted as to why they were selling fake tickets, they doubled down, and claimed the ticket was real.<\/p>\n

The general manager of the Valencia Marathon, Juan Manuel Botella, told The i Paper it was \u201cvery likely, sooner or later\u201d that the event would end up taking legal action against those that used the marathon brand to carry out scams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media and the impersonation of supposed athletes offering their race bibs are a matter of great concern to us, although there are few cases at the moment, especially when compared to the number of participants. <\/p>\n

\u201cThree years ago, we implemented a tool on our registration platform for the official transfer of bib ownership for our races. But there are still some innocent people who fall into the trap of scammers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Strava said: \u201cWe understand that race participants may look to transfer their registration in events to fellow community members on Strava. However, as is outlined in our acceptable use policy, which all Strava users agree to when joining the platform, deceiving, misleading or defrauding others, or encouraging inauthentic interactions, is prohibited \u2013 this includes exploiting bib transfers to defraud others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe review suspicious activity both proactively and through community reports, and information on how users can report activity deemed to be of this nature can be found at the Strava support page. Any accounts found violating our policies will be suspended from the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scammers are targeting runners desperate to secure places in major races, including the London Marathon, with promises to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,1317,4477,4478],"class_list":{"0":"post-9070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-london","9":"tag-london-marathon","10":"tag-running","11":"tag-scams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116367379989341731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}