How to Avoid a Craigslist/Scalper Ticket Scam
I’ve never been screwed buying tickets on Craigslist or from a scalper, but a lot of you have. I thought, something useful would be to discuss ways I’ve avoided buying fake tickets. The impetus for this post is that some guy tried to sell me fake tickets at Shakey’s yesterday to the Lakers – Celtics game 7—I’m dead certain they were fake and I figure, I’d let you know how to PROTECT YO-self in the future. Here are some rules/thoughts.
1. If you’ve ever wired money over Western Union via a Craigslist post then just JUMP. Just do it. There is no helping you.
2. If you’re at the game/concert/synagogue/whatever and you’re not going alone, ask the scalper if one of you can take 1 ticket, while the other sits there with the money waiting to hear back from the friend whether or not he gets in without a problem. Once your friend is safely inside, he can text you. You can then pay the scalper. Usually, if the tickets are legit, the scalper will have no problem. I once had a scalper walk me to the door.
SIDE NOTE Ya, my synagogue has tickets and pretty tight security. I’m pretty certain Persian girls scalp on high holidays so they can husband hunt.
3. If you’re meeting up with someone from Craiglist to buy tickets, always ask to take down their driver’s license info. Snap a photo using your phone or simply jot the info down. If the tickets don’t work out, you can call the police. Also, when making the purchase, look the the guy who is selling you the tickets in the eye and say “if these are fake, I will hunt you down with the fury.” At Shakey’s, the guy refused to let me see his license.
4. Tickets scammers are stupid, or else, they’d probably be doing something better with their lives than selling fake tickets. Having said that, what you need to do is prepare yourself with knowledge about tickets. A simple way to do this is to know how much the face value for the tickets are – at Shakey’s, I knew face value for the seats that I wanted to buy was $230, while the tickets he wanted to sell me said a face value of $300. Obviously fishy. Also, look at other things like spelling mistakes, wrong start times, etc…if you know what your ticket should say, then you’re less likely to buy the wrong ticket.
5. What does your gut say? Does this guy look/act shady? Often, but not always, your instinct is good enough.
I can’t think of much else for now, but feel free to comment and add ideas. Maybe we can start a discussion of other ways to PROTECT YO-self in the future…let me know what you guys think…
