Olympic Ticketing Web Sites Shut Down, Facing Restraining Order
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Olympic Ticketing Web Sites Shut
Down Ahead Of Restraining Order |
An online operation that "has failed to deliver promised Beijing Games admission tickets to hundreds of consumers worldwide unexpectedly closed down Monday," just hours before a federal judge in S.F. "approved a restraining order aimed at halting the websites," according to Greg Johnson of the L.A. TIMES. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's order prohibited Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Ltd. from "using more than a dozen website names, which include www.beijingticketing.com, www.beijingolympic2008tickets.com and olympic-tickets.net." White also "prohibited the company from using any Olympic marks, such as the familiar rings or the Beijing Games logo, to market tickets." USOC officials Sunday used blogs and chat rooms "to advise consumers who'd done business with" beijingticketing.com and beijing-tickets.com, another Web site that failed to deliver tickets, to check with New Jersey-based CoSport, an authorized Beijing Games ticket seller in the U.S. (L.A. TIMES, 8/5). In London, Fletcher & Tedmanson report www.beijingtickets.com last night "appeared to have been removed," as "in its place was a page that said: 'This domain is currently parked.'" Only "a few hours earlier the website had looked so legitimate that it reportedly even fooled online fraud specialists." The Web site "was based in the US and claimed to have offices in London and Sydney" (LONDON TIMES, 8/5).
TICKET-ED OFF: Houston-based attorney Jim Moriarty appeared on Fox Business last night to discuss how he was the victim of Olympic ticket fraud after buying tickets to the Games from one of the aforementioned Web sites. In mid December, after failing to buy tickets on the official Beijing Web site, Moriarty said he "found a site that had the official emblem and the rings of the Olympics, and I bought $12,000 of tickets, or so I thought.” Moriarty said the tickets never arrived and when he investigated, he discovered the USOC “had filed a lawsuit against these phony ticket sites the day before the tickets were supposed to be mailed.” Fox Business Rebecca Gomez notes Moriarty is "accusing Olympic officials of doing nothing about" his predicament (“Happy Hour,” Fox Business, 8/4).
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