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People hoping to attend the Beijing Olympic Games have become victims of an international Internet ticket scam in which thousands of fake tickets were offered the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said today.

The IOC and the United States Olympic Committee filed a lawsuit last week accusing at least half a dozen Web sites of selling bogus tickets. The action comes too late to help people find replacement seats at the Games.

The scam has affected people in Australia, New Zealand, U.S., Japan, Norway, China and Britain.

Olympic tickets are only sold through official national agents or the official online ticket store, tickets.beijing2008.cn.

"Anybody buying tickets for the Olympic Games should be careful to buy from an official source. Sadly, there are some fraudulent dealers, known as 'scalpers', who are out to cheat fans," said the IOC in a statement.

One of the sites named in the IOC lawsuit, beijingticketing.com  was still operating, offering tickets to a variety of events, including Friday's opening ceremony, with prices reaching $2,150.

The fraudulent site features an official Beijing Games logo, with a London phone number and an address in Phoenix, Arizona.

"Our sympathy goes to them. The IOC is concerned. We always told people to buy tickets from the official (Australian) supplier," said Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates on Monday.

Beijing organizing committee spokesman Sun Weide said he did not know the exact details of the Internet ticket scam. "So far I don't know the details. We always encourage people to go through the regular ticketing channels. We are against ticket sales on the black market."

Tickets for events in Beijing were completely sold out last week with seats only available for competitions in co-host cities.