Police nab 6 in ticket scalping operation

By Li Xinran  |   2008-6-11  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SIX people have been detained by Beijing police for allegedly scalping more than 1,500 Olympic tickets.

The six suspects were reportedly hiring people to buy 1,579 tickets in Beijing, Dalian in Liaoning Province, and other cities using fake ID cards, police at Beijing's Xicheng District told Xinhua yesterday.

Bank clerks in a Bank of China outlet called police about 10am on May 13 when they found two ticket buyers carrying 10 bogus ID cards.

The two men who tried to get nine tickets at the outlet confessed that they worked for two businessmen, identified as He and Fu.

Police said investigations showed He launched the ticket scalping business last March when a law office in Guangzhou asked him for 200 Olympic tickets as gifts. The law office paid He 640,000 yuan (US$92,500) for the tickets. He reached agreements with five other companies for the ticket booking service and accepted another 40,000 yuan in booking fees.

Booking tickets online requires ID information. Police said He obtained 500 ID card copies from Fu, who dealt in construction projects in Henan Province and hired many migrant workers.

He also collected more than 2,000 other pieces of ID card information and opened 920 bank accounts last June for the online ticket booking operation, police said.

They allege He acquired 1,579 tickets including 35 for the opening and closing ceremonies. However, buyers need to collect their tickets from designated banks with their ID cards, but the fake ID cards were discovered by bank clerks.

Beijing police launched a campaign last month to wipe out ticket scalpers to ensure sports events, entertainment performances and the Olympic Games run smoothly.

Olympic organizers have used technology such as offset micro-printing to prevent counterfeiting and curb scalper activity. They have pledged that there will be no repeat of foul-ups that marred previous ticket sales. Under Chinese law, ticket scalpers selling tickets worth more than 5,000 yuan can face a jail sentence of up to three years and fines ranging from 5,000 yuan to up to five times the face value of tickets.

A total of 7 million tickets are available for the Games, with about 75 percent reserved for domestic sale.