‘No clue’: Customers say thieves stole tickets out of Ticketmaster account

CHARLOTTE — Customers said thieves have been stealing tickets out of their Ticketmaster accounts.

Celeste Monroe told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke she had tickets to the Usher concert at the Spectrum Center on Wednesday.

“Each ticket was roughly about $550. So yeah, it was a hefty amount,” she said.

Then she said she got an email alert detailing her ticket transfer. “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. I didn’t transfer anything,’” she said.

Even worse, she said someone accepted the tickets, someone named “Bobby.”

“No clue who Bobby is,” she said. Stoogenke emailed “Bobby,” but no one responded in time for this report.

According to an SEC filing earlier this year, Ticketmaster acknowledged a data breach of a third-party database. Hackers claimed to have stolen information from as many as 500 million customers. Ticketmaster hasn’t said how that happened. It implied the criminals didn’t hack Ticketmaster’s defenses and that they used email to trick fans into giving them access to accounts.

“I contacted Ticketmaster, and, unfortunately, they’re telling me I have to just wait,” Monroe said. “To find out that I might not be able to go is disappointing.”

Stoogenke emailed Ticketmaster for her, and, a few days later, she had her tickets again.

The company emailed Action 9, “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 the situation and restore fans’ tickets. The top way fans can protect themselves is by 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.”

Advice:

• If you haven’t changed your Ticketmaster password since that hack, do it right away.
• If you get an email that appears to be from Ticketmaster, hover your cursor over the sender to make sure it’s really Ticketmaster.
• As always, be careful about sharing your information or clicking links.

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