London is a “honeypot” for organized crime rings hawking fake tickets and other scams preying on tourists descending upon the city for the Olympic Games, police say. Nick Downing, head of the Metropolitan Police Service’s 47- officer anti-fraud team, Operation Podium, said visitors may not even know they are victims until they arrive at stadiums and arenas with counterfeit tickets that were sold to them months ago in their home countries.
The 320,000 global visitors attending the Olympics contribute to an economic boost of an additional 804 million pounds ($1.26 billion) in consumer spending from the games, according to a report published in June by Visa Inc. Downing said the combination of money and unsuspecting holidaymakers creates a “honeypot” for attracting crooks.
“It’s a multimillion-pound criminal industry that’s behind ticketing,” Downing said in an interview this week. “That’s every day, but with the Olympics we’ll see a much bigger opportunity.”
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