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now i know why some of them were so happy ... 2 million dollars, a couple of weeks in jail and they get to go home ... they must really love Canada
A Latvian crime group using stolen credit cards for online ticket purchases ripped off the 2010 Olympics for up to $2 million, a Vanoc official confirmed Tuesday.
Renee Smith-Valade, vice-president of communications, said the bogus transactions were made through Vanoc’s fan-to-fan website.
She said the 218 original buyers who were defrauded will be reimbursed this week and that Vanoc, its insurers and Visa are in talks to see who will absorb the losses.
“We estimate the impact of this credit card fraud was between [$1 million to $2 million] and we are currently determining with our insurers and Visa how this will be settled and what the financial impact on Vanoc may ultimately be,” Smith-Valade said.
Two Latvian nationals with suspected links to organized crime have pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in Vancouver Provincial Court for their part in the fraudulent ticket scheme.
Arturs Abroskins and Andris Stuks were each sentenced in March to several weeks in jail and ordered deported. Charges against a third Latvian were stayed.
Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton said the three were believed to be in a group of more than two dozen Latvians who arrived in B.C. using their real names and passports in advance of the February Games.
They stayed at a four-star hotel in Victoria and were flying back and forth to Vancouver each day to pick up their ticket purchases.
Vanoc was alerted to the scheme when Visa called to say they had some concern about certain ticket purchases, Houghton said.
“Our investigators believe that there could have been over 30 Latvians flown in to Vancouver from the U.K. to work as runners,” Houghton said.
“They would purchase tickets with stolen credit cards and the way the site was set up Vanoc was the intermediary and they would absorb any loss.”
Once the scheme was uncovered, Vanoc “flagged all of these Latvian names.”
Investigators arrested the three suspects when they went to a Vanoc outlet to pick up their tickets, Houghton said.
He said the other Latvians in the group all seemed to disappear when the arrests went down.
The convicted men did not disclose what they were doing with the tickets, but it is suspected they were passed on to others or scalped to unsuspecting fans.
Houghton said investigators believe those arrested were just bit players for an organized crime group from Europe that likely targets international events like the Olympics.
Smith-Valade said fortunately the fraud was caught early.
And she said given that thousands of people resold tickets on the Vanoc site, the amount of fraud was relatively small.
“In magnitude, it is actually not that big when you think about it, because we had over 18,000 people use the fan-to-fan website,” she said.
“The good thing is they are not losing any money. The organizations that are impacted potentially are ourselves, and potentially our insurers and Visa.”
She said the 2010 Olympics used online ticket sales more than any other Games in history.
“This is the first time at any winter or summer Games that the online channel has been used as extensively as it has for ticket sales,” Smith-Valade said. “For our Games to only have one incident, which was quickly caught and investigated and charges laid, is quite good.”
She said the fraud case will be raised with international Olympics officials as part of a bigger debriefing on the Vancouver Games next month
Read more: Latvian scam costs Games $2 million
A Latvian crime group using stolen credit cards for online ticket purchases ripped off the 2010 Olympics for up to $2 million, a Vanoc official confirmed Tuesday.
Renee Smith-Valade, vice-president of communications, said the bogus transactions were made through Vanoc’s fan-to-fan website.
She said the 218 original buyers who were defrauded will be reimbursed this week and that Vanoc, its insurers and Visa are in talks to see who will absorb the losses.
“We estimate the impact of this credit card fraud was between [$1 million to $2 million] and we are currently determining with our insurers and Visa how this will be settled and what the financial impact on Vanoc may ultimately be,” Smith-Valade said.
Two Latvian nationals with suspected links to organized crime have pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in Vancouver Provincial Court for their part in the fraudulent ticket scheme.
Arturs Abroskins and Andris Stuks were each sentenced in March to several weeks in jail and ordered deported. Charges against a third Latvian were stayed.
Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton said the three were believed to be in a group of more than two dozen Latvians who arrived in B.C. using their real names and passports in advance of the February Games.
They stayed at a four-star hotel in Victoria and were flying back and forth to Vancouver each day to pick up their ticket purchases.
Vanoc was alerted to the scheme when Visa called to say they had some concern about certain ticket purchases, Houghton said.
“Our investigators believe that there could have been over 30 Latvians flown in to Vancouver from the U.K. to work as runners,” Houghton said.
“They would purchase tickets with stolen credit cards and the way the site was set up Vanoc was the intermediary and they would absorb any loss.”
Once the scheme was uncovered, Vanoc “flagged all of these Latvian names.”
Investigators arrested the three suspects when they went to a Vanoc outlet to pick up their tickets, Houghton said.
He said the other Latvians in the group all seemed to disappear when the arrests went down.
The convicted men did not disclose what they were doing with the tickets, but it is suspected they were passed on to others or scalped to unsuspecting fans.
Houghton said investigators believe those arrested were just bit players for an organized crime group from Europe that likely targets international events like the Olympics.
Smith-Valade said fortunately the fraud was caught early.
And she said given that thousands of people resold tickets on the Vanoc site, the amount of fraud was relatively small.
“In magnitude, it is actually not that big when you think about it, because we had over 18,000 people use the fan-to-fan website,” she said.
“The good thing is they are not losing any money. The organizations that are impacted potentially are ourselves, and potentially our insurers and Visa.”
She said the 2010 Olympics used online ticket sales more than any other Games in history.
“This is the first time at any winter or summer Games that the online channel has been used as extensively as it has for ticket sales,” Smith-Valade said. “For our Games to only have one incident, which was quickly caught and investigated and charges laid, is quite good.”
She said the fraud case will be raised with international Olympics officials as part of a bigger debriefing on the Vancouver Games next month
Read more: Latvian scam costs Games $2 million
