World Cup organizers uncovered a fraudulent attempt in the United States to order more than 2 million tickets for soccer's showcase event next year in Germany.
With 8.7 million applications for the first 812,000 tickets, a computerized system was used yesterday to select buyers in a random ballot. Those selected will be informed on April 22.
The scam order from the U.S. contained false postal and e-mail addresses and phone numbers, said Horst Schmidt, a vice president of the 2006 World Cup organizing committee.
"We were at first shocked by this attempt because we hadn't counted on something like this," Schmidt said. "We believe it was an attempt by scalpers to increase their chances of getting tickets."
Another 1.3 million orders also were deemed irregular -- such as tickets for more than one game on the same day -- and were void, Schmidt said.
Schmidt said lawyers in the U.S. were exploring possible legal action against the suspected scalpers. Those behind the plot haven't been identified.
"I hope we can rule out similar attempts," Schmidt said. Of the 8.7 million valid orders, 93 percent came from Europe, with 89 percent of those from Germany.
-- From News
Services
