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STORY: Luis Achtar is on the phone with a ticket scalper at the World Cup in Qatar.

He's asking the person what he can do to show that he's good for the money.

He is saying that he lives in California, and can show the scalper his ID or Facebook.

"If the ticket is not transferable, they can give you their account number and you log into their account and you use their ticket. That is another option."

"Angela, she said she is from Brazil, and then she offers a ticket for $300, I don’t think, I think she is trying to scam me. She is asking me how many tickets do I want. I am going to tell her I want one ticket and that if she transfers the ticket to me I will pay her, otherwise I will not do it."

Reuters has seen increasing numbers of ticketless fans like Achtar gathering outside World Cup stadiums to haggle with such scalpers -- sometimes in person, sometimes on social media sites and WhatsApp channels.

Ticket scalping is nothing new. But here in Doha it carries a fine of up to ten times the face value of the tickets being sold illegally.

And, the highest scalps that Reuters found actually matched that in price - ten times face value.

FIFA has warned that it will cancel any tickets identified as being sold outside official platforms, although legitimate tickets are becoming increasingly scarce as the games get closer to the final.

Qatar has dropped a prior requirement that visitors entering the country have match tickets, which has also raised demand.

You can hear it from one of the hawkers yourself.

He wanted to stay anonymous, only telling us he came to Doha from France for the sporting event.

"In fact, a black market is taking shape."

"With this Argentina match, that can be bought between 62 euros and for up to 250 euros, was resold in the best case for 900 euros, and I resold for 700 euros. I take the matches that you can monetize the most. Such as the Argentina matches, matches with Cristiano Ronaldo, so Portugal, and the matches with Lionel Messi. And the Mexican matches, because the Mexicans are dedicated supporters so they are ready to pay high prices."

"Actually, you need to do this in an intelligent way. You can’t just do it randomly. For instance, I don't know if you were able to see, it is not what I have done but most are coming with an Argentina jersey, they try to blend in with the crowd."

Scalpers seem undeterred by CCTV cameras and police patrols. Back with Achtar, he just wants to watch some soccer... if he can get inside.

"The idea is to wait until the last minute to see if someone cannot sell their ticket and the we can get it cheap. Because right now they are asking for crazy numbers, 700, 800, 1000 - crazy numbers.And how much they pay for the ticket is ridiculous, they probably pay $150 or less."