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Lancaster Woman Travels To U2 Concert To Find She's Been Scammed
LANCASTER, Pa. -- New technology is making it easier to buy tickets for your favorite entertainment and sporting events, but that same technology is also making it easier for people to get scammed.
This past Sunday, more than 20,000 people got to see U2 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.
Christa Yeager, of Lancaster, was supposed to be one of them.
"I've been a fan since I was in sixth grade," Yeager said.
Yeager started bidding in an online auction on the eBay Web site and eventually paid $180 for two tickets.
"I bought the tickets two weeks before the concert 'cause I couldn't get on the Web site the day they went on sale," Yeager said.
When the tickets arrived from the seller in Washington, D.C., they were two simple pieces of paper that looked like they had been photocopied. That made Yeager suspicious, but the paperwork did have the barcode that would be scanned to allow her in, and friends told her that they had used a similar type of paper ticket in the past.
So she went to the concert, but was not allowed in.
"I'm sorry, these have been used. Somebody's already sitting in those seats and my friend behind me had the same thing," Yeager said.
When Yeager went to the Wachovia Center box office she learned many other people had been scammed just like her.
Afterward, Yeager contacted the woman who sold her the tickets and got her money back.
"It was not the money that I lost, I was just really disappointed. It was a day-long event, a waste of gas money and energy," Yeager said.
Legitimate tickets can be purchased off the Ticketmaster Web site using a service called TicketFast. You pay for the ticket, Ticketmaster sends you an e-mail and you print out the ticket.
So what's to stop a scam artist from making multiple copies of this and selling it over and over?
The best way to protect yourself if you're buying a ticket online is to make sure you are buying it directly from the Ticketmaster Web site.
To view video of this report, click here.
--TheWGALChannel.com
LANCASTER, Pa. -- New technology is making it easier to buy tickets for your favorite entertainment and sporting events, but that same technology is also making it easier for people to get scammed.
This past Sunday, more than 20,000 people got to see U2 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.
Christa Yeager, of Lancaster, was supposed to be one of them.
"I've been a fan since I was in sixth grade," Yeager said.
Yeager started bidding in an online auction on the eBay Web site and eventually paid $180 for two tickets.
"I bought the tickets two weeks before the concert 'cause I couldn't get on the Web site the day they went on sale," Yeager said.
When the tickets arrived from the seller in Washington, D.C., they were two simple pieces of paper that looked like they had been photocopied. That made Yeager suspicious, but the paperwork did have the barcode that would be scanned to allow her in, and friends told her that they had used a similar type of paper ticket in the past.
So she went to the concert, but was not allowed in.
"I'm sorry, these have been used. Somebody's already sitting in those seats and my friend behind me had the same thing," Yeager said.
When Yeager went to the Wachovia Center box office she learned many other people had been scammed just like her.
Afterward, Yeager contacted the woman who sold her the tickets and got her money back.
"It was not the money that I lost, I was just really disappointed. It was a day-long event, a waste of gas money and energy," Yeager said.
Legitimate tickets can be purchased off the Ticketmaster Web site using a service called TicketFast. You pay for the ticket, Ticketmaster sends you an e-mail and you print out the ticket.
So what's to stop a scam artist from making multiple copies of this and selling it over and over?
The best way to protect yourself if you're buying a ticket online is to make sure you are buying it directly from the Ticketmaster Web site.
To view video of this report, click here.
--TheWGALChannel.com
sheesh.
