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Ticketmaster blames scammers for the disappearance of users' tickets

Posted on by Vanessa
Ticketmaster blames scammers for the disappearance of users' tickets

Ticketmaster is pointing the finger at scammers after several users reported that their expensive concert tickets were stolen from their accounts.

Ticketmaster is telling fans who claim their concert tickets disappeared from their accounts, costing them thousands of dollars, that they have fallen victim to hackers.

“We are seeing fraudsters access a fan's email account,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson told USA TODAY on Tuesday.

Many ticket holders have spoken to outlets about their experiences, including Blaine Heck, who told MarketWatch and the Daily Mail that she had two Taylor Swift tickets worth $3,500 stolen from her account. Likewise, Savannah Van Skyhawk in Indiana lost her tickets to a concert by the “Shake it Off” singer despite contacting Ticketmaster multiple times, WTHR reported.

“We paid about $300 per ticket, and I saw a resale value of about four to five grand per ticket. So we wouldn't have been able to afford another ticket if we didn't get those back,” Van Das told Skyhawk the television station. Ticketmaster simply told me, “We'll call you in three to five days.” So I waited three to five days and they didn't call me. I tried again and then they said three to five days called me.”

“Scammers are looking for new scammers”

In a statement to USA TODAY, a Ticketmaster spokesperson said the company advises ticket holders to “protect themselves” by “setting a strong, unique password for all accounts – particularly your personal email address, which we use “We often see security problems arise.”

“Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have significantly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicate PDFs. Using this digital history, we are also able to examine and successfully return tickets to fans,” the statement continued. “Scammers are looking for new scammers in every industry and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable. That’s why Ticketmaster continues to invest in new security improvements to keep fans safe.”

The spokesperson also said that Ticketmaster users' passwords were not exposed in the data breach earlier this year.

Data security incident at Ticketmaster

According to Ticketmaster's website, the company “discovered unauthorized activity on an isolated cloud database hosted by a third-party data provider.”

The hacked database contained limited personal information of some customers who purchased tickets for events in North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico), Ticketmaster said. According to the company, this could include users' email address, phone number, encrypted credit card information and some other personal information.

Despite the incident, the company said user accounts “remain secure” and “customers can continue to transact business with Ticketmaster as usual and without any issues.”

“Our comprehensive investigation – together with leading cybersecurity experts and relevant authorities – determined that there was no longer any unauthorized activity,” the company said.

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