Whether you are attending a sporting event, such as a baseball game, or a concert, there are countless ways to find tickets online. But with all the options, you should be extra careful to avoid a ticket scam.
Karen Meyer plans to take her family to a baseball game this summer. But he knows too many people who bought tickets from a reseller without scanning the gate.
“I’m afraid to buy from people on the street,” he said, “because I’m not sure with the price they’re asking that I can get a ticket valid for the stadium.”
Matthew Terry is also worried about getting burned, so he only buys from official sites.
“I just go to the website, find out how many people are in my group, and then schedule online,” he said.
How to protect yourself
If you have a summer play or concert coming up, Melanie McGovern with the Better Business Bureau reminds us that most venues only accept digital tickets now.
So if a seller offers a paper ticket, it may not be genuine or accepted at the entrance.
“If they say, ‘Hey, I’ll just shoot you an email, and it’s a PDF ticket,'” he warns, “a lot of times that’s not the way it works.”
And be aware of screen grabs taken on someone’s phone.
Tickets through sites like Ticketmaster can only be seen if your phone is near a ticket reader in many places. That’s why screenshots, which might have worked five years ago, are useless.
McGovern also says to check the seating chart before buying from a resale site.
“We have seen fake tickets with no rows and sections out of place,” he said of the recent complaints.
McGovern said the safest way to buy tickets is to:
- Start with the venue first, which will always direct you to Ticketmaster.
- If you are using a secondary resale site, check www.bbb.org first to make sure it is a genuine business and to see how many complaints the site has received.
- Find out how the ticket will be delivered to you.
- And find out if it has protection. Some third-party sites provide guarantees against fraudulent tickets, while others do not.
Finally, he says to watch out for fake-looking websites, such as sites that look like Ticketmaster, but aren’t really the official site.
That way, you know you’re getting legitimate tickets for your summer event, and don’t waste your money.
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