London 2012 passed on information relating to the use of social networking sites to drive people towards a fraudulent website offering tickets to next year's Games.

The man in question lured disappointed Olympic ticket applicants to his site after monitoring their conversations on Twitter.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Downing, in charge of the Operation Podium unit investigating Olympics related crime, said: "As we have all seen, there has been a huge demand for tickets to see this world-class sporting spectacle, and unfortunately criminals will be looking for every opportunity to exploit this.

"We will be looking to use the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006, and existing police powers, wherever appropriate, to stop those who seek to make money from genuine fans through fake websites and other ticket scams.

"At a time when people are finding out if they have been allocated any tickets from LOCOG [the organisers], the public need to be more wary than ever about buying from an unauthorised source.

"If they are tempted to do so, they run the risk of being ripped off for non-existent tickets, and having personal details stolen and used in other crimes.

LOCOG has said, however, that ticket holders are allowed to sell their tickets onto friends or family.

With thousands of applicants still disappointed and ticketless after the second round of the London 2012 ticket application process, LOCOG has indicated that there may be a further 1.3 million tickets made available later this year.

Only tickets to football, volleyball and wrestling are currently available.

There are websites with the rights to resell tickets to the general public in France, Germany and Sweden, but it is illegal for members of the public to attempt to do the same thing en masse.

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