Acting on what it called "extraordinary information" from members of the public after the awards ceremony for WRTC 2026 in July, organizers have thrown out some of the competition's scores which they believe were achieved as the result of an elaborate fraudulent strategy. The strategy made use of bogus multiplier stations and introduced frequency hand-offs and release of team identity - all prohibited practices.

Most prominent were the declared victories of the top team MB2M, and team MB2A, which the committee said were achieved in violation of competition rules. The organizers said that the scheme included the use of pirate stations posing as multiplier-producing stations which favored contact with those two stations. Other teams were disqualified after the probe also unearthed the frequency hand-offs and release of team identity.

Organizers said they were making the announcement on September 1st "with sadness and disappointment." They added that [quote]: "WRTC has strived to be a competition where the outcome is based on the competitors’ performance, and is not a function of offsite helpers assisting their competitor friends." [endquote]

Furthermore, reviewing logs for the WRTC-2023 held in Italy, the WRTC organizers detected the same fraud scheme and raised the possibility that the Bologna event would be rescored too.

Releasing the organizers' announcement, Mark Haynes, MØDXR, the chairman of WRTC-UK, said "the integrity of WRTC is of prime priority and in order to path its future in a positive light, it is our conclusion that these steps are absolutely necessary." [endquote]