SALEM, Ore. (Legal Newsline)-Internet sites are marketing bogus tickets for the upcoming Summer Games in Beijing, the Oregon attorney general said Tuesday.
The Oregon Department of Justice has received several complaints from consumers who say they paid top-dollar for tickets to the Games that they never received.
"We have received numerous complaints of consumers paying thousands of dollars for tickets they've never received," Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers said. "In the final lead up to start of the Olympics next month, phony ticket sellers are betting on panicked consumers taking chances with online purchases."
The Summer Games run Aug. 8 to Aug. 24 in China.
In a statement, Myers said the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has authorized only one company to sell tickets in the United States -- CoSport and Jet Set Sports, and these tickets cannot be sold through commercial ticket brokers.
Also, tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies, he said, are embedded with a microchip that contains the ticket holder's name, photo and passport number.
Tickets for the events can be transferred only with approval by the Beijing committee. Since the deadline for transferring opening ceremony tickets was July 15 and July 30 for the closing ceremony, sellers continuing to tell buyers they can transfer the tickets are lying, the attorney general said.
From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.