Not many Kiwis scammed - NZ Olympic chief

New Zealand Olympic boss Dave Currie believes only a handful of Kiwi athletes’ families have been caught up in the worldwide internet ticket scandal.

In a $50 million plus sting, bogus websites selling Olympics tickets have trapped a number of Games visitors, including some Australians.

Currie, the New Zealand team chef de mission in Beijing, said today that outside of the situation with the families of BMX riders Sarah Walker and Marc Williers, he had not heard any reports of the loved ones of Kiwi athletes securing the "scam" tickets.

It has also been reported that Jill Eastham, the mother of shooter Robert Eastham, had been caught up in the global deceit where fraudsters have been offering non-existent Olympic tickets for sale over internet sites.

The massive international ticket rip-off is said to have netted fraudsters more than $50 million.

"We're aware Sarah and Marc's mum and dad did get caught up in it, but we managed to get them alternative tickets some time ago," said Currie at a media conference today.

"We're cerainly not aware of any other families that have been involved. If they were I think we would have heard by now.

"It's been quite clear there have been some dodgy websites out there and certainly everybody was urged to go through the official ticketing agencies."

All of the families of New Zealand athletes caught up in the scam have had legitimate tickets provided through the New Zealand Olympic Committee's official ticketing agency.

"My understanding is it happened some time ago, and [the people affected] have had alternative tickets for some time," added Currie. "They did get caught and I guess they lost some money so that's a concern.

"But the important thing for them was they got tickets and are looking forward to being over here and watching them compete."

Currie conceded that accessing tickets to some events had been "a challenge" for some athletes' family members, but he said often this was simply down to a timing issue.

"I don't know that there's any less tickets [for Beijing]. Certainly there has have been some pressure on tickets, but the real challenge is that families want to wait until athletes have qualified before they apply for tickets.

"Those tickets have been on the marketplace for a long time and if somebody's taken a punt and bought tickets a long way out, then it's a bit hard on the organsiers if somebody at a very late stage says 'I want a ticket'."

- © Fairfax NZ News