CINCINNATI — We're just days away from Taylor Swift's long anticipated Cincinnati concerts.
Unfortunately, some fans are already ending up very disappointed, because it appears they may have bought fraudulent tickets.
Katelyn is a mom of a teen daughter from Cincinnati's east side. She asked that we not use her last name, due to the nature of this scam.
She desperately wanted to treat her daughter to Taylor Swift tickets, but couldn't afford $1,000 or more per seat, which is the going rate right now on resale sites.
But last week, she said one of her friends was selling tickets on her neighborhood Facebook page. The asking price? Just barely over face value, at $250 each.
So she Venmo'd the woman $500 for the pair.
But all she received were apparent screen shots of tickets, not the real thing, and worse, they never showed up as transferred to her in her Ticketmaster account.
"You should get an email in your account, and I never got an email," Katelyn said.
But when she reached out to question the seller as to why she never got an official transfer notice, she learned the woman's Facebook page had been hacked.
It wasn't a "neighborhood mom" who sold her the tickets at all.
Now, she doesn't know if her screenshots are valid.
Depending on the venue, sometimes a screenshot will allow the first person at the gate inside a concert, but then anyone else afterward who has the same screenshot will be denied entry.
That is why most venues have moved away from screenshots of barcodes or QR codes, which can be easily copied and resold.
Most concert and sports tickets nowadays are "dynamic," meaning that the tickets have to be in your phone's wallet.
How to protect yourself from fraudulent tickets
To prevent a ticket nightmare like this, the Better Business Bureau suggests you only buy from reputable resellers such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, Seat Geek, and 333-SEAT that:
- Accept credit cards for payment.
- Offer a money back guarantee in the event a ticket is fraudulent.
A few weeks back, Katie Briley ran into a different issue: This Clermont County mom bought tickets for her 7 year old daughter on a legitimate resale site, but the seller then backed out and refused to transfer them.
"When you are a mother to a child to whom this is a gift, it's very devastating to your child," Briley told us.
So the Better Business Bureau says:
- Buy tickets only from the original source, such as Ticketmaster, or from trusted resale sites, not Facebook, Instagram, or Craigslist, where you have no protection.
- Instruct the seller to transfer the tickets to your Ticketmaster account immediately, not days later, when they could decide to back out of the deal.
- Never pay for a concert ticket with Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, or gift cards: You can't get your money back. With a credit card, you can dispute a fraudulent purchase.
Katelyn now plans to visit the Paycor Stadium ticketing office, and find out if her tickets may scan at the gate.
Meantime, she is warning other Swifties to just be careful.
"It's so real," she said.
Be very suspicious of tickets offered on social media: there is nothing to protect you. And that way you don't waste your money.
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