Online scalpers are still trying to cash in on next year's Gold Coast Commonwealth Games despite there being no physical tickets in circulation for the event yet.
Ticketek is the Games' official online retailer, but ticket exchange websites like Viagogo are already advertising spots for the opening ceremony and many other events.
Tickets for the Games went on sale earlier this year but printed copies will not be available until next year.
The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chair Peter Beattie warned the responsibility to detect and avoid these scams rested with you, the consumer.
"If you buy from a scalper, you will be buying hot air.
"Right from the beginning, when the tickets went on sale earlier this year, we said to everybody, 'Please, there are two rules...only buy through Ticketek, only go through the Gold Coast 2018 website'.
"Do not go anywhere else."
Speaking with ABC Radio Brisbane's Craig Zonca, Mr Beattie said Games organisers were actively investigating and asking sellers to take down illegal tickets.
"One of the reasons the tickets haven't been sent to people, and that won't happen until next year, is that we can reserve the right to cancel tickets if people are involved in trying to rip others off," he said.
"We want everyone to get a fair go at the Games, we don't want people ripped off by scalpers."
To date, the Organising Committee has not cancelled any tickets.
International scalpers harder to police
In August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it would take Swiss-based Viagogo to court over allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct.
Consumer advocates also accused the website of being complicit in controversial sales tactics by allowing it to use the word "official" in search engine advertisements.
Mr Beattie said buyers could beat scammers by following ticketing advice on the official Commonwealth Games website.
"Our problem is we can't get a website in Switzerland taken down, we don't have the power to do that," he said.
"These big search engines are really global, they don't listen, frankly, to any particular state, let alone nations.
"What we have the power to do is go out and communicate with people and say, 'Don't go there'."
