17 Sep 2011

Fans arrive to find their Cup tickets are fake

11:55 am on 17 September 2011

A group of Rugby World Cup fans has been ripped off by a ticket scam.

Barbara Wegelin from Amsterdam and her family of six spent almost $6000 buying tournament tickets online a year ago, through what they thought was an official Cup website.

The family live in different parts of the world, including Europe and Asia, and planned the reunion a year ago so they could watch the Cup.

But shortly after arriving in New Zealand, she says they were told the tickets were fake.

Ms Wegelin says the family is embarrassed at being conned but the fake tickets look official.

However, they were able to buy official tickets for the matches they had planned to see, after the credit card company reversed their transaction for the fake tickets.

The games include the match between South Africa and Fiji in Wellington on Saturday and the All Blacks against France in Auckland on 24 September.