The 2012 Olympics. A big thing for trading standards. Today I chaired a meeting of trading standards colleagues from the London councils and from local authorities outside of London who are hosting events.
Big concerns about the lack of resources to tackle the counterfeiters, ticket touts and other rogues who will look to hijack the Olympic Games opportunity to rip off consumers, UK and overseas visitors, and leave a bad taste in the mouths of those who will be here to enjoy the spectacle and the experience.
The good thing is that I can see the professionalism and resolve of trading standards practitioners kicking in. The bad thing is that they need much more real help from central and local government and from the Olympic authorities and business to be able to keep the Olympic parks and the hinterland fair and clean of consumer crime. I shall be writing to Ministers and others to press the case even at this late hour.
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If I was going to run a scam for the Olympics I would forget ticket touting and run a rent your house out/accommodation scam along the same lines.
ReplyDeleteAdvertise loads of London accommodation for the 2 weeks in question on a flashy website, find the demand, take the money, then go out and try and source the supply from suitable homeowners. Prestige locations are going for £thousands per week.
Of course, these naked selling scams invariably leave many punters high and dry, but would I care if I had just banked a few hundred grand?
Ticket touts (with fakes) are a dying breed. With the latest barcoding/holographing schemes - there isn't much you can do to falsify tickets.
ReplyDeleteThe World Cup in Germany was a good example with named tickets - preventing touting.
I think there is more of a concern for people selling fake merchandise. Its always best sticking to official/genuine stockists for everything eg.
shop.london2012.com
www.argos.com
www.highlander-outdoor.com
www.ldngames.co.uk