London 2012 Olympic Ticket Fraudster gets a Four-Year Jail Sentence

Operation Podium brings another offender to book with the news that Olympic ticket fraudster whose fake websites sold €450,000 worth of tickets in just five weeks has been jailed for four years.

Christakis Ioannou was charged with two counts of fraud over the sale of Olympic tickets, and also faced charges of money laundering and the illegal sale of Olympic tickets.

Ioannou, 44, set up two websites prior to the Olympic Opening Ceremony with a design almost identical to the official London 2012 site, the sites offered unlimited numbers of tickets to numerous Olympic events.

Ticket buyers who bought tickets from www.2012-londonsummergames.com and www.2012-londonsummergames.org soon discovered that they were the victims of yet another on-line fraud, once the money had been taken from their accounts customers were unable to make contact with Ioannou.

Ioannou was based in Portugal and had numerous accounts there. On arrest police found €17,500 in his possession.

A success story for those working to combat on-line ticket fraud but we would suggest that there is no room for complacency, this type of ticket scam is still very much alive, well and operational.

Safeconcerts advise that you never buy your tickets from anywhere other than official, legitimate ticket outlets. Do check our Ticket Safe pages and our Be Ticket Safe Directory ® and make sure you know where and who you are buying from. If we don't have it listed let us know and we'll look into it for you.