You’ve got your bandana, big sunglasses and even bigger hat, but they won’t do you much good if your music festival tickets turn out to be fake.
In the Fraudulent Ticket Scam, con artists post advertisements online and elsewhere offering tickets for sale to concerts, sporting venues, plays and other events. However, the tickets aren’t the real deal.
Fraudsters use a variety of techniques to make the tickets appear legitimate, such as forging barcodes and logos of real ticket companies and selling duplicates of legitimate electronic tickets.
This scam can become more common as the summer concert and event season kicks into gear.
Tips:
- Buy tickets from the box office, the event website or a well-known and authorized ticket broker who has a legitimate physical address and landline phone number.
- Double check the web address of the ticket seller; some charlatans create phony websites that appear to be operated by authentic ticket companies.
- Beware of classified ads, online or otherwise.
Report fraud to the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs at (800) 593-8222 or https://dcba.lacounty.gov.
Deputy District Attorney Seza Mikikian explains how the ticket scam works in this video:
Follow @LADAOffice on Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date news and use #FraudFriday.
This news release was courtesy of the DA’s Office.
