Kiwis hit by Olympic scam (+video)

Families and friends of Kiwi athletes have mostly escaped the $50 million global Internet ticketing fraud that has hit the Beijing Games, New Zealand Olympic officials believe.
View video: Olympic internet scam

Olympic chef de mission Dave Currie said in Beijing yesterday that it seemed only the families of two BMX riders had been caught out. However, at least a dozen other New Zealanders have been in contact with the New Zealand Olympic Committee after the scam was revealed.

The families of BMX riders Sarah Walker and Marc Willers both paid for tickets that did not exist. Willers' parents said they had lost $740, but believed Walker's parents might have lost far more.

"They got tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the BMX and it ran out to thousands," said Alan Willers, who added that Bike New Zealand staff inadvertently pointed them toward the bogus ticketing sites.

Australian Olympic fans were also hit hard, one Brisbane man being taken for A$46,000 (NZ$58,000).

Cambridge-based Willers said his family had been led to the website by Bike NZ after discovering Premier Events, the New Zealand Olympic Committee's official ticketing agency, did not have any BMX tickets.

"We didn't have any suspicions," Alan Willers said. "My wife went searching on the Internet and she got this beijingticketing.com thing, I think BikeNZ might have told us to try [the address]."

Bike NZ marketing manager Greg Hamilton said yesterday that he would be "incredibly surprised" if any of his staff had directed anyone anywhere other than Premier Events. "That's definitely where we've been advising people to go."

Mr Willers said the family realised they were being scammed when Premier Events came back to them saying it had got some tickets.

"We told them we'd already got some. They wanted to know where we got them, and then, when they looked into it, told us it might not be a legitimate website.

"So we bought some more, just in case." They cost $74 compared with the $740 charged by the bogus site, he said.

The bogus website, which gives a London phone number and an Arizona address, remains on New Zealand's Internet server.

NetsafeNZ executive director Martin Crocker said it could be some time before the site was closed because it was almost impossible to track the server down.

Mr Currie said all of the families of New Zealand athletes caught up in the scam now had legitimate tickets.

- © Fairfax NZ News