Ticketmaster scam: Customers say tickets 'disappeared,' lost hundreds of dollars
Ticketmaster customers said they’re being scammed out of their tickets. The customers claim after they buy event tickets, their tickets mysteriously get transferred to a stranger and resold.
Customers all over the country are reporting the issue, and Ticketmaster is placing the blame on personal email hacks, rather than the company’s security.
"I feel violated," said Jennifer Robinson from Martinez.
Robinson said last week, she bought six presale tickets to two different 2025 New Kids On The Block concerts. As a longtime fan, she was planning to celebrate her birthday during the band’s Las Vegas residency.
"Monday evening, I got what I thought were phishing emails to be quite honest," she said.
She logged in to find the tickets had been transferred to a stranger, and she did not authorize the transfer.
"It sounds like a bad joke, but the person who accepted the tickets’ name – ‘Who Who,’" she said.
Robinson said she tried to reach customer service and Ticketmaster’s fraud department, but the company has not been helpful. Now, she’s out of nearly $1,300.
"Do I fly to Vegas? Do I keep my hotel plans? The uncertainty of the trip and the amount of money, I mean, this wasn’t cheap," she said in disappointment.
"I checked on the Ticketmaster website and the tickets were reposted for resale and they appear to be resold to some unsuspecting fan that has no idea that these were stolen tickets," she added.
The same thing happened to Julie Parish from Fairfield.
"I couldn’t believe that these tickets just disappeared," Parish said.
She said she bought four tickets in August for a February Blake Shelton concert in Vegas, but on Tuesday, all four of them were gone.
Parish said she got a barrage of emails all at once. Four of the emails were from Ticketmaster saying her ticket transfers were successful, to a person she didn’t know named "Steph Wain."
"I opened up the email and I thought it might be a phishing scam so I didn’t click on anything so I immediately logged into my Ticketmaster account," she said. "I started panicking and I’m looking for Ticketmaster’s phone number."
Parish said, "I was on hold for probably an hour before I got through to Ticketmaster and they just said they would forward it to the fraud department and I would hear from them in 3-5 business days," Parish added.
Parish said she lost more than $700 and still has not heard back from Ticketmaster.
Earlier this year, Ticketmaster announced a data breach, but ensured customer accounts were safe and passwords were not exposed in the breach.
Ticketmaster said the problem often originates with a hacker accessing personal email accounts, rather than Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster encourages customers to use a strong unique password for their accounts.
Customers aren’t satisfied.
In Robinson’s case, she said she has a unique password and two-factor authentication on her Ticketmaster account, and she never received a text to confirm her log-in when the tickets were transferred.
"They knew they had data breaches. They knew they had an insecure system. They’re a multibillion-dollar industry. They’re basically a monopoly on tickets and venues," Robinson said.
In a statement from Ticketmaster, a spokesperson wrote, in part, "our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated pdfs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate and successfully return tickets for fans."
They went on to write, "Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans."
Robinson and Parish are still uncertain about whether they’ll be able to enjoy the concerts or get their money back.
KTVU reached out to the Better Business Bureau, but did not hear back in time for this report.
Featured
Hans Zimmer concert at Oakland Arena heavily delayed leaving fans confused
Authorities at the Oakland Arena are currently not letting anyone in or out of the venue.