Greg's Corner

Protect yourself against fake tickets

With Labor Day weekend coming up and the start of the NFL season following, it’s important to keep your guard up when buying tickets for a big event. Whether it’s a concert or tickets for opening day, there will be a number of scalpers out there that will be looking to take advantage of the demand for these events. Often the larger events sell out very quickly leaving many to search for tickets among the secondary market. Unfortunately, the secondary market is rife with traps and pitfalls that you should be aware of.

When doing a web search for the event you’re wishing to attend, don’t assume the first listing is a legitimate one as search engines can be rigged by scammers to show them as a top listing. Try to stick to authorized resellers as there are many sellers out there armed with counterfeit tickets that will leave you turned away at the door the day of the event. However, if you insist on buying tickets from an unauthorized seller, ask them to meet you at a local police station to make the exchange. While not a perfect solution, it can go a long way in weeding out potential scammers.

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We’d also like to remind you to not post pictures of your tickets on social media once you get them. This makes it very easy for counterfeiters to copy the bar code from your tickets and produce copies they can sell. Once again, this could leave you outside the event looking in if someone with a copy of your tickets gets to the event before you.

While prices for these events may be exorbitant these days, we recommend buying tickets from either the event box office, licensed retailers, or authorized resellers only. This way you can assure yourself that you and your family won’t be turned away from the gate on the day of the event.