Cyborg Hits Ticket Site

Police from the new National Fraud Intelligence Bureau have arrested four people suspected of running a rogue ticketing site called Gigsport.com.

The NFIB launched “Operation Cyborg” after receiving more than 200 complaints from people claiming they bought tickets from the site but never received them. They are said to have collectively lost more than £40,000.

The bureau, part of City of London Police, swooped in on two addresses in the London area Aug. 12, arresting three men and one woman.

Police arrested a man and a woman at their home near Waltham Abbey, Essex, and another man at an office in central London, where they seized computers and paperwork, BBC News reported. A third man was subsequently arrested in London.

All are believed to be directors or former directors of the company. The site was still operative Aug. 18 and advertising shows from hundreds of acts including AC/DC, Alicia Keys, The Killers, Bruce Springsteen, and Amy Winehouse, plus “every festival event in the UK.”

Gigsport registered its domain name through an anonymous registry site Sept. 8, 2009, and within three months became the subject of a warning from the Safe Concerts website.

“Given the sheer variety and volume of tickets on offer, the lack of an allocation of tickets from any primary agent that I have spoken to, the domain registrant hiding behind a domain registry service, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the site is probably offering for sale tickets that it does not physically possess,” the Safe Concerts site said in a note posted Jan. 28. The site gives consumer advice to ticket-buyers.

The NFIB, which was launched in June, uses a computer system that takes data from banks, government and phone companies, among other organisations, to map fraud networks. These were its first arrests.