A fake Colombian basketball team posed as the country’s official cohort in order to participate in a tournament in Russia. Credit: Darko Stojanovicp, Public Domain / Pixnio.
A bizarre story was uncovered last weekend, when a fake Colombian basketball team participated in a championship in Russia. The players, all of whom were amateurs, pretended to be the official Colombian national team and competed in the Friendship Cup, held in the Russian city of Perm.
The Colombians lost embarrassingly in the first game against the local team by 155 to 53, leading to the hoax being uncovered. Hours later, the Colombian Basketball Federation issued a statement saying it “never received a formal invitation to participate in the Friendship Cup in Russia, nor was any endorsement given to any club or training school in the country to participate.”
Fake Colombian basketball team plays in Russia thanks to email hacking
Due to international sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been banned from participating in international sporting events. It could not send a delegation to the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, for example.
To compensate, Russia organized a friendly international tournament which was not part of the official competitions endorsed by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). According to reports, a 25-year-old Colombian student named Cristian David Mosquera, who lives in Russia, allegedly hacked the email of the Colombian Basketball Federation. Posing as the organization’s president, he negotiated with the Russian authorities to enable the team to participate.
Mosquera managed to convince Russia to fly his group of his friends – who were posing as the real Colombian basketball team – from Colombia to Russia. Russia paid for all expenses, including airplane tickets, lodging in luxury hotels and meals.
The Colombians’ poor performance in the tournament soon raised suspicion. After losing to their hosts in their first game, the fake Colombian team lost again in their subsequent game against Venezuela, with a score of 107-58.
The fake Colombian basketball team: a group of friends who play in Bogota parks
News of the fake Colombian basketball team quickly went viral. It was soon discovered that most of the fake team’s players were young amateurs who normally play basketball at weekends in parks across Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Mosquera, who organized the hoax all the way from Russia, included himself in the phony team.
John Mario Tejada, the president of the Colombian Basketball Federation, was quick to dissociate the professional organization from the fake team, confirming that most of its members were linked to local squads. He said they had been coached by “a school teacher” to prepare them to take part in the tournament.
“We became aware of the [fake Colombian basketball team] via social media,” Tejada said. “We have no contact with the Russian Federation, but we heard about the lousy results of the alleged Colombian team and we became aware of the hoax.”
“We will conduct a thorough investigation as this affects the good name of Colombian basketball at the international level,” he continued.
Head of Colombian Basketball Federation rejects email hacking theory as fake team faces legal action
Despite reports, Tejada does not believe that Mosquera hacked the Federation’s email account itself. “I think that they invented some fake accounts and convinced the Russian authorities that they were the official ones of the federation,” he said.
The Colombian Basketball Federation has already issued a criminal complaint to the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office and will be taking legal action against the fraudulent team for the improper use of the real team’s image and logo.
“We have all the names of the individuals who participated [as part of the fake team] in the [Russian] tournament and this information was delivered to the Prosecutor’s Office,” said Tejada, who also clarified that he does know any of the players personally.
He also said that Russia may have played a part in the deception, given that it is currently “disaffiliated” from the International Basketball Federation owing to the sanctions applied to the country following its invasion of Ukraine. “To organize international tournaments, federations must request formal authorization from FIBA, but it is clear that this was not done in the case of the Russian tournament,” Tejada concluded.
It is not yet clear how Russia will respond to the deception. Although fraud does not represent a serious attack on national security, it is an embarrassment for the tournament’s organizers. Some experts say that the fake team could be sentenced to several years in prison for this type of crime.
Although some media have speculated that the fake players could be back in Colombia, Colombian sports authorities have not confirmed this information.