With the World Series set to begin Friday in Toronto as the Blue Jays host the Los Angeles Dodgers, ticket scammers are more than ready to take your money.
Declan Conroy, who lives in Ottawa, was interested in buying World Series tickets at Rogers Centre when he contacted a person advertising available seats.
In a text exchange Tuesday on Facebook Messenger, Conroy was told three tickets for sale were located in section 143 and were going for $150 each, way below their playoff face value.
“I mean ya, seems too good to be true though,” Conroy messaged back. “What’s the catch?”
The person at the other end offered to transfer one ticket to him “if you are trustworthy.”
After Conroy became wary of the offer, the apparent ticketholder corrected the price to $250 and said it was a “fair” offer.
“How can I confirm this is legitimate,” Conroy asked. “I’ve been burned before from buying tickets on FB (Facebook). Are your tickets on Tickemaster?
The person said they were purchased from what they allege was the Blue Jays’ Ticketleap site, a platform that allows anyone to create an event to sell tickets.
All that was required was a name and email address to transfer a ticket, the seller said.
“Never heard of it,” Conroy replied, pointing out the only way to buy Blue Jays tickets is from the team’s official site through Ticketmaster while all other options are through the verified resale market.
After the person at the other end claimed the ballclub teamed up with Ticketleap “a while back,” Conroy shot back that they actually did not.
He told the Toronto Sun that the apparent scammer had lied throughout their conversation.
“The long and short of it is that he told me that he was going to transfer the tickets via Ticketleap (no association whatsoever to the Jays),” Conroy said. “He had said that’s where the tickets were purchased (not possible), and said the Jays had partnered with Ticketleap (a lie).
“Ticketleap is a legitimate platform for event organizers to sell tickets on, however, you or myself could go on and create an event and make it look like it’s a Jays home game. So even when you receive the tickets from him it looks legitimate.”
Conroy also shared his text exchange to the Toronto Blue Jays Tickets For Sale group on Facebook to warn other about the playoff ticket scam.
“I was lucky enough to catch on before proceeding,” Conroy wrote. “Blocked me once I called him out.”
Toronto Police are warning fans to beware of fake World Series tickets.
They say there are many ways to recognize an online ticket scam, including the use of neighbourhood social network groups to advertise tickets, asking for deposits or more money than what was agreed upon, and the use of third party websites.
Police say protect yourself from online scams by only purchasing tickets from authorized sellers, doing background research about the seller, checking against other site prices, and meeting the seller in-person in a public space.
If a person was the victim of a scam and lost money due to ticket fraud, police say they should file a report.
If a potential buyer recognized that a ticket seller was not legitimate but didn’t lose any money, police say you can contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or antifraudcentre.ca to file a report.
