338 fraudulent ticket resale sites identified a few weeks before the start of the competition

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 4 minutes read

Since March 2023, gendarmerie cyber patrols have been organized to identify fraudulent sales or resale sites.

A few weeks before the launch of the Paris 2024 Games, the cyber-gendarmerie is more than ever in demand to fight against attempts at fraud in the sale or resale of tickets online. This is information from Franceinfo: since the start of cyberpatrols in March 2023, 338 fraudulent sites have been identified, of which 51 have been closed and 140 put on notice.

The unit, created specifically to combat Olympic ticketing fraud, has 200 gendarmes mobilized to conduct research on the internet and social networks. These cyber patrols are carried out under the control of Europol.

Captain Etienne Lestrelin is director of operations: “The gendarmes carry out various searches on all French and foreign search engines to detect sites which sell and resell tickets without authorization. The objective is to track down and identify these sites. The vast majority are sites hosted abroad, specifies the director of operations at franceinfo: “They know that the steps are longer and less easy to bring an action to close or withdraw the site.”

“The only site where you can buy tickets is the official Paris 2024 website.”

Captain Etienne Lestrelin

on franceinfo

Among the fraudulent sites identified, some are “amateur sites” observes the gendarme. “Fraudulent sites that aim to capture personal data. They will try to collect your email and phone telling you they will contact you as soon as tickets become available. They will tell you that they found the exceptional 100 m place three meters from the track… which does not exist!

Other sites already existed before the current Olympic period (concert ticket sales sites for example), but resell tickets even if they are not authorized to do so. “In this case, we fall within the framework of formal notices, that is to say that they are responsible for stopping this sale”reports Captain Etienne Lestrelin.

But illicit resale obviously also takes place via social networks: Facebook, Lebonboin, Telegram, Instagram. It's even “the first source of resale attempts”testifies Captain Etienne Lestrelin. “It is an exchange from individual to individual, he explains. Except that the buyer does not know if the person actually owns the tickets, since they are virtual tickets and not paper tickets. So people are selling you wind, we don't know what they're selling.

Some honest individuals try to resell their home without going through the official platform. Although prohibited, tolerance is granted up to a certain threshold: “We have decided that as soon as people are selling tickets on a regular basis, we are asking for intervention and closure of the account. This is what we can call a second market, the black market. From the moment we have a notion of volumes, there is an intervention to stop sales.

To spot a fraudulent sale, Captain Lestrelin believes that a price that is too low can alert the buyer: “You will never get a ticket below its original price. The goal of people who may have purchased tickets in large quantities and with the intention of reselling them is to make a profit. So it's an alert if you find a much cheaper ticket. The sentence to remember is that there are no very good deals on the internet, it's not possible.

Another potential alert: if the seller claims to provide you with a ticket now: “Currently, no one can get a ticket. It will only exist before the event when the QR Code is generated. So someone who currently has a ticket, even if visually it looks like a ticket, it’s a fake, a scam.” Vigilance is all the more important because by bypassing official channels, the buyer is also committing an offense: “You are associating yourself with the crime that the seller commits when he resells without going through the official website. It is a criminal offense.

To ensure that the purchase made is valid, “the first step is to go to the official application, advises Captain Lestrelin. Thanks to the references that will be given to you, you will be able to check if the ticket exists and if it has been transferred to you. If the buyer realizes that he has been deceived, it is essential to make a declaration to a police station, a gendarmerie or directly to the DGCCRF, General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention. .

Since the opening of the resale platform in May 2024, the cyber-gendarmerie has observed more and more fraudulent sales and resale attempts. “The impact is enormouswarns Captain Etienne Lestrelin. There are potentially people who will think they have the ticket, come to an event and be rejected because the QR code is not the right one.

Leading up to and during the Games, the unit will remain active and work will then continue with investigations and forensic investigations. An active partnership is engaged with the DGCCRF cross-reference the information, data and identified sites. Follow-up will also be carried out with the Olympic Committee to question potential buyers deceived and blocked at the entrance to the events and trace back to the sellers.

Paris 2024 and the national gendarmerie remind us that the first reflex to have is to go through the official route. “For the first time in the history of the Games, 100% digital ticketing allows unified management” of sales, reminds franceinfo of the Cojop communications department, which reminds that the list of approved sub-distributors can be consulted at this address. An awareness campaign was also presented on video with the words of French Olympic athletes. In total, 13 million tickets will be on sale, Olympic and Paralympic Games combined.