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Buying From A Scalper Can Be A Ticket To Trouble

March 22, 2006

• Ticket Sellers Settle New Jersey Suits • Massachusetts Court Throws Out Ticket Resale Suit • TicketsNow Promises Illinois It Will Curb Deceptive Tactics • New Jersey Sues Over Phony Springsteen Ticket Sales • TicketsNow Once Again in Hot Water • Pennsylvania Settles Miley Cyrus Fan Site Suit • Ticketmaster Settles Bruce Springsteen Ticket Dust-Up • Obama Inaugural Attendees Targeted by Ticket Scammers • Texas Attorney General Sues Olympic Ticket Scammers • Bogus Websites Selling Beijing Olympics Tickets • Class Action Challenges NCAA Ticket Sales • Super Bowl Ticket Scams Flourish • Hannah Montana Fans Skip the Scalpers • Ticket Brokers Pony Up Hannah Montana Tickets • Missouri Scalping Crackdown Gets Results • Missouri Sues Hannah Montana Scalpers • Arkansas AG Probes Concert Ticket Scalping • Super Bowl Attracts Super Scams • Buying From A Scalper Can Be A Ticket To Trouble --- • Stubhub complaints • Ticketmaster complaints • Ticketman complaints • Ticketnetwork.com • Ticketsnow.com complaints • Ticketsplus.com

Technology increasingly makes it easier for scam artists to rip people off. Computer-generated tickets, for example, can easily be photo copied and sold to unsuspecting consumers over and over.

In Des Moines, Iowa, police are looking for a scammer who bought five electronic tickets through Ticketmaster for a performance of the Lion King. The tickets, printed out of a computer, had a bar code that would allow one user per ticket to enter the auditorium.

Police say the scammer sold multiple copies of each ticket, with at least 30 people getting shut out of the show when the ticket-taker scanned their tickets at the door. The scammer reportedly charged $50 for the counterfeit tickets.

Police say it's always risky buying tickets from a scalper, who usually charges significantly more than the face value of the ticket. In the era of e-tickets and computer printouts, they warn those risks are simply magnified.

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