Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts said many have purchased their tickets illegally and warned the 2012 Games will be the most “scammed event in history” because of the internet.
Olympic organisers have placed strict conditions on who may buy tickets from where and Australian residents are only authorised to buy tickets through the local ticketing agent, CoSport.
Tickets for sale on internet trading site eBay include a pair of category B Opening Ceremony tickets for $9500. Another pair is for sale for $10,500, but without any authentication evidence.
Olympic organisers are so concerned about scams they have created a website listing over 40 sites known to be selling fake or unauthorised London Olympics tickets.
Mr Roberts said Fair Trading was working with other international consumer protection organisations to crack down on the dozens of scams using Olympic tickets as bait to get people to part with their money. Most of the scams originated in Eastern Europe and Russia, he said.
“We want to warn people to only buy tickets to the London Olympics from the official site, not off eBay or elsewhere”, Mr Roberts said.
Mr Roberts said some scammers had made telephone contact with unsuspecting Olympic fans, claiming they had “won” discount tickets to the Games. He urged customers not to send money to any of the sites. Other scams include a fake email from the Olympics “Entertainments Co-ordinator”.
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