Scammers Are Targeting Vancouver’s Summer Soccer Surge: liv.rent Launches Verified Short-Term Rental Licence Visibility

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With international fans racing to secure stays during one of the largest sporting events hosted in Canada, liv.rent’s new feature helps renters identify City of Vancouver-licensed short-term rentals before sending a deposit

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This summer, Vancouver is co-hosting one of the largest sporting events in history, bringing an unprecedented wave of international visitors to the city. As fans race to secure accommodation, many are searching outside official hotel channels — and fraudulent listings are already waiting for them.

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To help renters book with more confidence, liv.rent has launched verified short-term rental licence visibility for City of Vancouver listings. The feature checks whether a landlord-provided short-term rental licence number is registered with the City of Vancouver, then displays a verified licence badge directly on qualifying listings.

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The demand is real. So is the risk.

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A report by Deloitte, commissioned by Airbnb, projects a shortfall of approximately 70,000 room-nights in Metro Vancouver across match days alone, with total accommodation capacity estimated at around 41,800 units for the City of Vancouver. With Vancouver hosts expected to earn an average of $4,200 during tournament games, more short-term listings may enter the market. This gives renters more options, but also creates a high pressure booking environment where fraud can accelerate and verification matters even more.

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When urgency becomes a vulnerability

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The pressure to book quickly in a supply-constrained market makes renters more likely to skip the verification steps that would otherwise protect them, which is precisely what scammers are counting on.

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Cybersecurity researchers at Group-IB identified more than 4,300 fraudulent domains impersonating the tournament’s official web presence in the months leading up to kickoff. Much of the infrastructure for this summer’s scams was built before the first match was played.

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International visitors unfamiliar with Canadian rental norms may be especially vulnerable. The RCMP, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and Vancouver Police Department have all warned about fake short-term rental listings targeting travellers to Vancouver. These scams often collect deposits for properties that do not exist, or that the poster has no right to rent.

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Common tactics include cloned booking portals, listings using real building addresses with stolen photos, and operators running multiple fraudulent listings across platforms such as Facebook and Kijiji. Generative AI has made these scams harder to detect, allowing fraudsters to create fake listings, booking confirmations, and landlord personas at scale.

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In a supply-constrained market, the pressure to book quickly can make renters more likely to skip verification steps, which is exactly what scammers are counting on.