Consumers warned of online sporting event scams

BUYER beware: A consumer watchdog has warned people not to be conned by offers of cut-price tickets to Euro 2012 and the Olympics ahead of an expected surge in online demand.

The Dublin-based European Consumer Centre (ECC), which monitors online scams and customer complaints, warned that amid the growth of counterfeit goods and fake “pop up” retailers, sports fans could end up paying a heavy price by buying tickets from unofficial sources.

Caroline Curneen, PR and marketing manager with the group, said that last year staff in Dublin had to follow up a complaint from an Irish woman who travelled to South Africa the previous year, having apparently secured a ticket to the World Cup Final, only to discover the ticket did not exist.

“The sale of actual tickets is what we would be concerned about,” said Ms Curneen. “People might secure tickets and book flights and a hotel on the strength of that and then the ticket never arrives.”

She said the expected rush by supporters to get tickets for Ireland’s three Euro 2012 games next summer and then the London Olympics could leave them vulnerable to online scammers, either websites which sell tickets and then disappear having taken the money, or resellers who offer tickets at much higher than face value but later fail to deliver it.

“Dealing with those websites is the same as dealing with a tout,” said Ms Curneen, adding that while websites such as eBay meant it was easier to get your money back in the event of non-delivery of a ticket, there were still counterfeit tickets on offer.

“We would expect to see a lot of them this year with Euro 2012 and the Olympics.”

The warning came after the ECC dealt with a range of scams throughout 2011, from retailers selling counterfeit items such as iPads, Karen Millen coats and Ugg boots, to fake dating profiles established online in a bid to dupe other site users into parting with their money.

While the ECC dealt with fewer than 100 clients throughout the year, Ms Curneen said many people who had fallen victim to a scam often did not report it out of embarrassment.

New scams have appeared, such as websites which initially claim to take credit card payments for an item but which subsequently contact the buyer to say there has been a problem with the transaction and ask if it is possible to transfer the money in another way. Often, once payment is made, the site disappears and the item is never delivered.

A variation on this theme is to charge such a high surcharge on credit card payment — anything up to 17% — that the customer looks to pay another way, leaving them open to being ripped off.

“It is a criminal offence — it is like they just stole the money from your purse,” said Ms Curneen. “The products do not exist and someone just sets up a website in their bedroom.”

The ECC is collating its figures for 2011 and said one development last year was the growth in scam text messages, often originating in Eastern Europe and stating that money can be claimed by contacting particular phone numbers.

While these messages are a matter for Comreg, Ms Curneen said: “There is little that Comreg can do if the messages are coming from outside the jurisdiction.”

Amid the plethora of sites offering items such as fake Ipads — and often ranked high in any Google search — the ECC has recommended that consumers research websites and companies online to see if there has been any negative feedback. It also recommends using online tools such as its own Howard search engine, which can check when a company or website was registered.

The main piece of advice is simply “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

Ms Curneen added: “Do not be blinded by the price.”