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The former state opposition leader, Kerry Chikarovski, also lost $350 trying to buy two extra tickets to the Games. The International Olympic Committee has been flooded with complaints from hundreds of people worldwide who have realised they had been conned, including the parents and friends of competing athletes. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Australian Olympic Committee, Mike Tancred, said it had received many complaints but it had consistently told consumers to buy only from the authorised Australian ticketing agent, CoSports.

The international committee won a restraining order in the US to shut down www.beijing-tickets2008.com several weeks ago. Lawyers for the committee will appear before a federal court judge in San Francisco tomorrow to shut down the other website. But yesterday www.beijing ticketing.com was still offering tickets for events that have been sold out for months.

The website claims to sell A-class tickets to the swimming finals for $695 and said it had A-class tickets to Friday's opening ceremony for $2150. It claimed the other categories for the opening ceremony had been sold out. The site provides a London phone number but gives a registered office address in Arizona. A Brisbane property developer, Rob Jones, said he lost $46,000 but was still flying to Beijing today to try to secure some tickets for the Games.

"I have already paid for the flights and accommodation and I have managed to get a few tickets to a few events, but obviously the tickets that I bought through this website are gone," Mr Jones said. "I had bought opening and closing ceremony tickets, swim finals and some football tickets. I must say that up until now I was hoping that the tickets would just turn up, but I have been complaining to various authorities about this because I sensed it was a scam a few months ago.

"I'll pursue this when I get back, I am going to track these guys. I have been in touch with some others who have lost money and we estimate these guys have been raking in much more than $50 million." The Australian Olympic Committee's director of marketing and branding protection, Alan Grover, has told the international committee: "With respect to ticket scamming there has been a reasonable number who have been caught … "The AOC has always advised consumers to only buy tickets from the official ticket provider and no one else despite the fact they all claimed offshore websites had plenty of tickets when CoSport had none."

Mr Jones and another victim, who said he was too embarrassed at being fleeced to give his name, said they had been taken in by the use of what appeared to be the Beijing Olympic logo (it is similar but not the same) and a professional-looking website. Mr Jones said he had searched online for tickets and the website was one of the first to pop up.

A United States Olympic Committee official, Kelly Maser, had contacted the Australian committee seeking details of people who may have been swindled to help in its legal action. She wrote: "As you surely know, the USOC has been working with the IOC on the US lawsuits involving the fraudulent sales of Olympic tickets through www.beijingticketing.com and other related websites." Officials at the international, Australian and US committees say they are unable to provide consumers with replacement tickets or refunds.