Olympic officials have turned to the federal courts in a bid to shut down two online companies suspected of stealing money, credit card information and passport numbers from hundreds of people who thought they were buying scarce tickets to prime events in Beijing.
The International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee won a restraining order July 23 in federal court in Phoenix that shut down one of the websites, www.beijing-tickets2008.com. On Monday, the USOC and IOC plan to ask a federal judge in San Francisco for an order that would shut down www.beijingticketing.com, which remained active Friday.
Attorneys for the IOC and USOC have been in touch with authorities, and "it is our understanding that there are discussions ongoing within law enforcement as to whether the FBI will become involved," said USOC General Counsel Rana Dershowitz.
Officials said they did not know for certain whether the operators of beijing-tickets2008 were out of business, or had simply shifted to a new online address. Both companies appeared to have been operating several related websites promising to deliver hard-to-find Olympics tickets.
The websites lured people in large part by their extensive -- and allegedly illegal -- use of logos that look very similar to the official Olympic ones. The websites' names also helped them appear atop search engine results.
The sites said they couldn't deliver tickets until late in July, so many consumers didn't realize that they'd been taken until it was too late.
"Only in the last week or so have we confirmed that, in fact, there are no tickets coming through," said Dershowitz, adding that the IOC had heard from hundreds of victims in numerous countries, including England, Belgium and Australia. "We have seen no evidence that anyone has received any tickets. The best that we can tell, it's blatant fraud."
While consumers who did business with the websites welcomed the court action, some questioned why it took officials so long to act.
"I actually tried to expose them way back in February to newspapers and also to the Beijing Olympics Committee," said a resident of Charlotte, N.C., who asked not to be identified because he fears retribution from the website operators who have his personal data. "It seems like no one took it seriously until now."
Officials at the USOC and IOC say that they are unable to provide tickets or refunds for consumers who've been duped.
