Lynda Richards can’t wait for October 18th.
“This whole entire year we’ve been waiting to go see Taylor Swift,” she said.
It’s the day she’s supposed to see Taylor Swift perform at Hard Rock Stadium with three others, including her 16-year-old stepdaughter.
Almost a year ago, she paid over $8,400 for four tickets, purchased through a third-party site. She thought she was all set until she received two concerning emails from Ticketmaster in September.
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“Saying that my tickets were transferred to somebody by the name of T.E.,” she said. “I thought it was a scam.”
But when she checked her account, Lynda quickly realized the emails were real.
“My stomach dropped,” she said. “I immediately called my best friend and told her my tickets are gone.”
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It turns out, Lynda isn’t the only one who has seen her tickets vanish from her Ticketmaster account. NBC Responds units across the country have received similar complaints from viewers in recent weeks.
“Ticketmaster spends a ton of time, effort and resources,” said Kaitlyn Henrich, a senior vice president at Ticketmaster. “For us, your ticket is tied to your individual account.”
Henrich recently spoke with NBC about ticket security and had this to say when asked why people should continue to trust Ticketmaster:
“Ticketmaster invests more into security and verification than the rest of the industry,” Henrich said.
Lynda said she spent weeks trying to get her tickets back on her own but got nowhere.
“So, I did some research and found NBC6 and reached out to you guys,” she said. “Immediately, somebody contacted me.”
The NBC6 Responds team got right to work.
“And next thing I know, I got my tickets back,” Lynda said. “I don’t understand why I would have to go to that extreme to have someone else reach out when my word wasn’t enough to get those back.”
Ticketmaster sent NBC6 the following statement:
“Overall, 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 like we did for Ms. Richards. The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate. Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”
The company also said because of the security measures built into their mobile tickets, they are able to restore just about all tickets, adding that delays in confirming this with fans is due to prioritizing those with upcoming shows.
Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, had a data breach in April. But the company told NBC6 that Ticketmaster passwords were not exposed in that incident. It was unclear how the scammers got access to Lynda’s account.
“I feel like they’re not being very proactive with it,” Lynda said. “They’re being reactive.”
Lynda said she changed her password, but days after the tickets were put back into her account, the tickets were transferred out a second time. NBC6 Responds was able to help her recover them again, but she worries it could happen a third time.
“I feel like I should have the choice to disable the transfer button, disable the selling button,” she said. “As of right now, I can’t. They’re on my account. Anyone can go in there and push it and transfer it to anybody that they want.”
If you find yourself in a similar situation, contact customer support right away to try to get your money back or restore your tickets. You’ll also want to report the theft to police. The Federal Trade Commission keeps track of these scams. You can file a fraud report by clicking here.
