Police arrested three men and six women aged 19 to 43 in an operation today against illegal online auction activities. They were being detained for further questioning.

The operation aimed to curb the increasing number of concert ticket sales at high prices on some online auction websites.

Following a two-week investigation, officers identified a number of online auctioneers suspected to have pushed up a concert's ticket price by posing as other account holders making false bids against genuine bidders.

Enquiries revealed that the original prices of the concert tickets, ranging from $100 to $380, were unscrupulously pushed up to the range of $600 to $2,000.

The officers raided nine locations this morning, resulting in the arrest of nine people for offences including fraud, criminal damage and access to computer with criminal intent.

The Police said similar operations will be carried out in future.