Kiwis caught in Olympic ticket scam

More than a dozen Kiwis have contacted the New Zealand Olympic Committee after being burned by an internet ticketing scam.

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It has been revealed that the beijingticketing.com site and another selling site, beijing-tickets2008.com, are bogus.

The global scam is believed to have netted the fraudsters more than $50 million.

NZOC Secretary General Barry Maister said the callers had lost varying amounts of money and were from all parts of New Zealand.

Maister said ticket scammers go hand in hand with every major sports event in the world.

"Scams are not new. That's why the committee works hard to ensure people choose to buy their tickets through reputable agencies," he said.

"Regrettably some people believe they can save some money by going elsewhere and they put themselves at risk while doing so."
 
Maister said some people have had difficulty getting tickets through reliable sources, and in frustration have looked elsewhere to find them.

"We regret that but there is no shortcut in the process."

He said about 2000 New Zealanders have bought tickets to the Beijing Olympics through reputable agencies, and are in for a great experience.

He said the NZOC and the United States Olympic Committee have already taken legal steps against the "latest" scam to close it down.

"But they can usually only be reactive rather than proactive with these things and that means people get burned in the process," he said.

Maister said the committee has sourced tickets for those people who have been scammed, but still want to go the Olympics.

"We've managed to get them all general tickets – although they've still lost money in the process."

He expects there may be many other Kiwis who have been caught in the scam that haven't yet contacted the NZOC.

LIFELINE FOR COMPETITORS' PARENTS

Parents of New Zealand Olympians who have been caught up in the  scam still have a chance of going to Beijing to watch their sons or daughters compete.

Premier Events Asia Pacific is the New Zealand Olympic Committee's official ticketing agency, and its managing director Malcolm Beattie said today he would do everything possible to get affected parents tickets because of their "horrible predicament".

Beattie said from Beijing today that affected parents could e-mail him immediately at malcolmb@premiereventsgroup.com.

"Tickets have long sold out but there are always ways with our friends who are official ticket people for other national Olympic committees.

"We swap with each other ... we can work it out - we will do our very best to try and get tickets for those distressed parents."

Beattie said he had secured tickets for Jill Eastham, mother of shooter Robert Eastham who was in a similar situation and last night found tickets for the mother of BMX gold medal contender Sarah Walker.

He thought that there were at least four cases in which parents of New Zealand Olympians had been scammed.

Parents of New Zealand's male BMX rider, Marc Willers, were among those to have been caught out in the scam based in Arizona in the United States.

Yvonne and Alan Willers paid more than $700 via the beijingticketing.com website for tickets that did not arrive.

But they realised early that they had been duped and were able to secure legitimate replacement tickets.

Mrs Willers said the family of New Zealand's other BMX Olympic medal hope Sarah Walker, had also forked out money to the US website and not received tickets.

Others who also purchased tickets via the beijingticketing.com site won't be so lucky.

The beijingticketing.com site provides a London phone number but gives a registered office address in Arizona.

"That site is the biggest scam in the world, they have made millions of dollars worldwide," Beattie said.

"They are based out of Arizona somewhere and are being sued by the United States Olympic committee - if they can even find them.

"They are a complete fraud and anybody who gave them money off their website to unofficial people really are taking a hell of a risk," Beattie said.

He also reminded New Zealanders they had to collect their tickets in Beijing.

"We have only just had the tickets issued to us by Bocog (the games organising committee) and Bocog will not let us courier tickets out of China.

"We have set up an office in the New Zealand embassy in Beijing and we have informed people that they have to come there at allocated times to pick up their tickets."

He said about 2000 New Zealanders were travelling to the Beijing Olympics. This compared to the 1000 who went to Athens in 2004 and the 6000 to Sydney in 2000.

AUSSIES BURNED

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that a host of Australians have been caught out with one Brisbane man losing $A46,000 and a Sydney man losing $A10,000.

Kiwis who have purchased tickets online through www.beijing-tickets2008.com and www.beijingticketing.com, websites linked to a fraud involving the sale of Euro 2008 football tickets, are those likely to have scammed.

Australian news outlets report the former NSW state opposition leader, Kerry Chikarovski, also lost $A350 trying to buy two extra tickets to the Games.

The International Olympic Committee has been flooded with complaints from hundreds of people worldwide who have realised they had been conned, including the parents and friends of competing athletes.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Australian Olympic Committee, Mike Tancred, said it had received many complaints but it had consistently told consumers to buy only from the authorised Australian ticketing agent, CoSports.

The international committee won a restraining order in the US to shut down www.beijing-tickets2008.com several weeks ago. Lawyers for the committee will appear before a federal court judge in San Francisco tomorrow to shut down the other website.

But yesterday www.beijingticketing.com was still offering tickets for events that have been sold out for months.

The website claims to sell A-class tickets to the swimming finals for $695 and said it had A-class tickets to Friday's opening ceremony for $2150. It claimed the other categories for the opening ceremony had been sold out.

The site provides a London phone number but gives a registered office address in Arizona.

A Brisbane property developer, Rob Jones, said he lost $46,000 but was still flying to Beijing today to try to secure some tickets for the Games.

"I have already paid for the flights and accommodation and I have managed to get a few tickets to a few events, but obviously the tickets that I bought through this website are gone," Mr Jones said.

"I had bought opening and closing ceremony tickets, swim finals and some football tickets. I must say that up until now I was hoping that the tickets would just turn up, but I have been complaining to various authorities about this because I sensed it was a scam a few months ago.

- Fairfax Media/NZPA