Olympic Ticket Selling Websites Terminated Over Phishing Activities

According to news updates released recently, two Websites that officials sited as phishing sites have eventually been closed down, but only after Olympic officials convinced the US federal authorities that the sites were fraudulent.

The Websites, namely, beijing-tickets2008.com and beijingticket.com, looked like genuine ticket brokers. However, instead of supplying Olympic tickets, the sites' owners charged several hundred payment card accounts in the process of ticket selling and stole personal details.

Furthermore, it is evident from the media reports that the phishing fraud netted fraudsters over $50 Million from sports lovers all over the world, particularly from countries like the United States, England, Norway, China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee had been notified of the phishing scheme many months ago, but no action had been taken to pull down the fraudulent although official looking Websites.

Talking about the new phishing scam, Fred Felman, CMO of MarkMonitor, said that such types of frauds have become more or less frequent and they are largely found on auction and ticket sites, as reported by SCMagazineUS on August 5, 2008.

In the meantime, as a defense against court orders, the site beijingticketing.com said that it had become a victim of phishing that led to its closure. The site also sent bulk e-mail to its customers on August 5, 2008 saying that it did not have Olympic tickets and this upset the customers.

Also, according to reports, Alan Scott of beijingticketing.com said in the bulk e-mail that the site was unable to supply the tickets as the company supplying the tickets had filed for insolvency, as reported by smh on August 5, 2008.

However, as per the investigations of the phony Website, the connection of a telephone number given on it had been snapped since the time the scam came to light.

Meanwhile, according to Sam Masiello, Director of Threat Management at MX Logic, people are not only giving out money for such event tickets but they are also losing their credit card details to fraudsters, as reported by SCMagazineUS on August 5, 2008.

Related article: Olympic Message Masks Trojan

» SPAMfighter News - 8/20/2008