Brazil has 15 of the world's most dangerous 50 cities on a list compiled by the Mexico-based Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, and months before the World Cup began, crime in Rio de Janeiro was on the rise, according to The Associated Press.
In the months leading up to the World Cup muggings in the famous Copacabana area were rising 60 percent, though, official statistics won't be out for months, the AP reported.
The United States embassy, among others, warned its citizens before the World Cup about robberies on city buses, in banks and at cash machines, according to the AP.
Rio state governor Luiz Fernando Pezao has characterized Rio's crime fight as "a war," the AP reported.
American fan Jack Smith slipped his card into an ATM in a Rio airport and believes the card was cloned in an instant and, over several days before he discovered it, his account was debited for $12,000, according to the AP. "Maybe this is a Brazilian tax of some kind I have to pay," Smith said.
"I've probably met 60 people here, and 20 have been hit," said Smith, of Knoxville, Tennessee, the AP reported. "Of course these were for smaller amounts, although somebody told me they were out $6,000. But I'm scared. I won't ever use an ATM machine here."
The World Cup has been breathtaking on the field, but with exhausted fans traveling across a country larger than the continental United States, stories are easy to come by of people losing things, being robbed, and getting blinded by their exuberance, according to the AP.
"At these big events, everyone comes prepared - the criminals too," said Jennifer McGowan, a spokeswoman for credit card company, Visa, in Sao Paulo, the AP reported.
Chile's consulate in Rio says it issued 81 emergency travel documents in the first week of the World Cup, almost 10 times more than it issued in the same period a year ago, according to the AP.
Chilean Christian Alvarez said he was robbed of $1,700 at gunpoint by a gang outside his hotel that apparently followed him after he withdrew cash from ATM machine, the AP reported. He was hoping to buy tickets on the street, which is illegal in Brazil.
"It was a shock," Alvarez said at the Chilean consulate, according to the AP. "The consulate couldn't give me money back, but I was able to contact my family."
