Ticket scam stings couple

The parents of Cambridge BMX rider Marc Willers say they have fallen victim to an Olympics ticketing scam.

Yvonne and Alan Willers paid more than $700 for tickets that have not arrived and they have since learned the company beijingticketing.com may be bogus.

They have since bought legitimate tickets, for just $74.

Desperate to get to Beijing and support her son in his first Olympics, Mrs Willers said she wouldn't let anything stand in the way. "Even if I had to go over there and stand outside and just listen I would have, to support him."

Their quest for tickets started when they learned New Zealand would not be allocated tickets for the BMX event. They sourced1 them through beijingticketing.com, a US based outfit, and spent over $700 for tickets. They haven't heard back from the company, have received no tickets and have been unable to contact them.

Mrs Willers said Premier Events, the agency supplying tickets to New Zealanders, had told her the company beijingticketing.com appeared to be a scam and her credit card company were looking into it.

In the end, Premier Events were issued BMX tickets and Mr and Mrs Willers swooped up two tickets for two sessions at a cost of just $74.

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.

Neither Marc Willers nor Sarah Walker have been confirmed in BikeNZ's Beijing-bound team, but both are considered near certainties after recent results on the world stage, and will be realistic medal hopes.

Susan Waddell, mother of rower Rob, said she had no trouble with tickets in what will be her third visit to the Olympics.

"New Zealand Rowing has provided us (families of rowers) with tickets after the travel agents didn't have any. And they were quite moderately priced too," she said.

"I don't expect to see much of him because security will be so tight, but hopefully it will mean something to him. It will to me."

Soccer player Aaron Scott's parents are booked for Beijing without having tickets. Dave and Sandy Scott are still waiting to see if their application for tickets was successful and were told they would hear sometime this month. Like Walker and Willers, Scott's place has not been confirmed, but after captaining the side during qualifying and recently spending time in Wellington as part of the training squad, he too is a shoo-in.

- © Fairfax NZ News