TOI

Beijing, Aug 5: Hundreds of sports fans from around the world appear to have been cheated, giving credit card and passport details, and possibly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for what they believed were genuine Olympic tickets. 

The fraud scheme has reportedly affected Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Britons and others. Victims are said to include family members of the Australian football team competing at the Olympics.

The beijingticketing.com website was offering tickets for Friday's Olympic opening ceremony for $1,750 and $2,150 Monday, calling the prices "very competitive".

Tickets for prime events such as swimming were also available at the site which claims itself to be "a secure and reliable ticket agent".

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and United States Olympic Committee (USOC) were hoping that a San Francisco judge shuts down the website later because it is believed to be part of a massive ticket fraud operation. The IOC and USOC July 23 had shut down a similar website, beijing-tickets2008.com .

"Our sympathy goes to them. We always told people to buy tickets from the official supplier," said Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.