Tokyo 2020 organizers said they voided 6,900 Olympics tickets that were purchased with fraudulent identities online through the lottery earlier this year, totalling $1.6 million.
“Tokyo 2020 understands that there have been large-scale purchases following the first wave of the Olympic ticket lottery applications from a large number of IDs registered with false personal information,” organizers said in a statement, according to France24.
During the first-round of the online lottery, about 30,000 fraudulent IDs were generated, organizers said, and altogether, about 6,900 tickets for 150 sessions were purchased with the fake IDs, adding up to a face value of about 180 million yen. While there were no details of who created these fake identities, organizers noted that they were working with police to “continue to monitor illegal applications during the second lottery sale.”
The first ticket lottery went on sale in May, where the application period was extended by 12 hours due to high demand. Ticket requests closed after 7.5 million applicants with a Tokyo spokesman noting that organizers were “absolutely pleased” by the interest. A second lottery took place in August for those who were unable to secure tickets in the first phase of the lottery. Tickets will not be able to be resold for above face value due to a new law passed in the country.
The 2020 Olympic Games will take place from July 24 to August 9, followed by the 2020 Paralympic Games from August 25 to September 6.
