Police in southern China have arrested a man for running a phony Beijing 2008 Olympics Web site that bilked fans by running bogus contests. Computer engineer Liao Peigui made as much as $53,191 from people he persuaded had won contest prizes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. "Winners" were asked to first transfer a deposit of 10 percent to 20 percent of the promised prize money into a bank account owned by the 20-year-old Liao, the report said.Lame, lame, lame. Anyone stupid enough to fall for this deserves to be suckered. |
Some individuals lost as much as $1,330, Xinhua said, citing Wu Yingkang, of the Hainan province police.
Xinhua said Liao had "cloned" the official Web site of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, making it indistinguishable from the real one. The ghost of PT Barnum nodded appreciatively | Liao's arrest underscores two areas of concern for Beijing -- cracking down on use of the Internet for illegal purposes or to spread political dissent, and protecting the Olympic image and trademark. Beijing has threatened harsh punishment for any who use the Olympic logos without authorization, although fake Olympic products from T-shirts to pens and baseball caps can be bought in central Beijing for a fraction of the price of real ones. |