Is This The Achilles Heal Of The Olympic Ticket Scammers

Yesterday on the Today Show Karl and I discussed the latest, most likely largest online scam we have seen for some time. A bogus website set up to snare would be travellers hoping to watch the worlds greatest sporting event has netted (as said by SMH) $50 Million. My main concern was that this website was one of the best at hoodwinking people because it looked so real. Well, one viewer emailed in with his theory on how to tell if a site was a site, or merely a scam to rip off your hard earned cash. I’ve changed the name of the emailer to respect privacy.

Caught the Olympics scam story this morning on Today. As the IT guru, I though you might like to point out to the masses that on the Credit Card details page, there’s no sign (little padlock at the bottom right) that the page is encrypted. Additionally, to test the theory, I registered with the site this morning and have ordered in the vicinity of $500,000,000 worth of tickets for a wide variety of events using random numbers in the CC box – no problem. Legit sites always check your CC details.

If this hasn’t been pointed out please spread the word. I use CC online a lot, and I always check for the encryption. The fact that these guys haven’t pinged me proves the illegitimacy of the site. It could also prove that they’ve been caught and lynched as well, of course…:)

Cheers – Johnno

Are there any other ideas floating around that will help, simple is always best so shoot them through.