Some of you may remember hearing the HORROR stories on the news about people buying tickets for the NFC Championship game played here in January. I'll explain the most common scam but, in a nutshell, never buy 'e-tickets'!
Here's how the scam works: Let's say a scammer legitimately buys a pair of tickets to a game or concert online using a service such as TicketMaster. TicketMaster gives the buyer the option of paying a for shipping a set of real paper tickets, or electing for the free 'e-ticket' option. E-tickets are basically an e-mail you receive from TicketMaster with a barcode at the bottom of the page you then print out. You take the printouts to the game and they are scanned like any other ticket, and you are allowed entry into the game.
You probably already figured out the scam by now, right? The scammer sells his e-tickets on services such as CraigsList or sometimes eBay. The buyer gets the e-tickets forwarded to his email so he can print them out and redeem them at the stadium. There's no way to limit the number of times the scammer can then sell the same pair of tickets, right? All he's doing is forwarding the same e-tickets over and over, and can easily make a boatload of money in a hurry! The kicker is, the first person to show up at the stadium will be allowed to use the tickets, and anyone else showing up basically gets what feels like a swift kick to the gut when they are told the tickets have already been used.
eBay is not used much in these kinds of scams because the structure of the marketplace and eBay's requirements that a seller take payments that can be contested. Craigslist is completely unregulated, and therefore the preferred predatory turf of these scammers. The lesson to be learned? If the tickets aren't real, don't take the chance! Also, if your buying tickets to an event you may not be able to make, be sure to spend a few bucks to get real tickets mailed to you. You can always bring them into iSold it and get a good price! As potential buyers get more savvy to this scheme, it will get harder for people to trust anyone trying to sell any kind of e-tickets.
Lessons learned buying tickets on craigslist & eBay
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