The International Olympic Committee began legal action against a website yesterday that allegedly set up a worldwide Olympic ticketing scam.

Hundreds of people in Britain, America, Belgium and Australia, desperate to be present at what are expected to be the biggest Games in history, paid about £30,000 for tickets and accommodation that did not exist to the website www.beijingtickets.com.

The International Olympic Committee began receiving complaints after travellers, including the parents and friends of competing athletes, arrived in Beijing to find themselves stranded.

The site appeared to have been removed yesterday evening. In its place was a page that said: “This domain is currently parked.”

Only a few hours earlier the website had looked so legitimate that it reportedly even fooled online fraud specialists.

It was based in the US and claimed to have offices in London and Sydney. It offered accurate information on events, a highly professional booking system and was littered with official-looking Olympic logos.

It was also advertising tickets to events that have been sold out for more than a week, however, including seats at the opening ceremony on Friday for about £1,100.

A final batch of 250,000 tickets released on July 25 prompted long queues, scuffles and brawls in Beijing. Two days later it was announced that tickets to every event except football matches outside the Chinese capital had been sold out.

The committee insisted that it was unable to compensate duped consumers but in the run-up to the Olympics it has been working hard to crack down on the rogue online ticket trade – an industry worth £1.5 billion in Britain alone.

Two weeks ago the International Olympic Committee and the US Olympic Committee shut a similar site, beijing-tickets2008.com. Officials admitted that they have no idea if the site has truly closed or simply moved to a new online address.