Four Wiseguys Indicted in $20M Online Ticket Scam

[JMcEntegart]

Four Californian men have been indicted for an online ticketing scam valued at $20 million.

Four Wiseguys Indicted in $20M Online Ticket Scam : Read more

 

[drksilenc]

get rich quick and go to jail later lol... i h8 conn artists

 

[brendano257]

Although rather dirty, I'll give them credit for what they accomplished.

 

[icepick314]

eh?

scalping is illegal?

 

[tapnick]

Not enough info is posted here about the alleged wire fraud, so hard to say if this is actually a big deal. Scalping isnt illegal in most states.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

Isn't this exactly what Ticketmaster does on a daily basis?

 

[sliem]

Their only mistake (broke the law):
"used a nationwide network of computers to impersonate thousands of individual shoppers and circumvent security measures put in place by ticket vendors"

Ie: they are not an authorized vendors & they broke the security measures to purchase tickets more than allowed (I'm assuming there is a limit, who would buy more than say 4? let alone 882).

Go to jail for you, imo.

 

[mactruck]

[citation][nom]tapnick[/nom]Scalping isnt illegal in most states.[/citation]

Scalping may not be illegal but hacking the ticket sale websites is. I know MLB has a very strict EULA that forbids buying over 6 tickets per game online and circumventing that to get 2000 Yankees tickets is both illegal and a dick move to the actual fans that have to pay >2x face value for those tickets on StubHub or eBay.

 

[dark_lord69]

In MN you can resell tickets on the street, scalping isn't illegal. But that is not what they are charged with.

 

[jgiron]

scalping is illegal

They intentionally purchased as many tickets through fraudulent means and then sold them for 2X the amount.
So a ticket that the retailer would have sold for $5 would cost you $10.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I read a much longer article in this mornings' Wall Street Journal. Sometimes they hacked into computer systems and sometimes they caused damage. They resold the tickets to ticket brokers for at least $30.00 more than they paid for them. Sometimes they charged a lot more for the tickets. $30.00 doesn't seem like much until you see the totals. Looks like the guys walked away with over $20 million dollars.

 

[maydaynomore]

The comments made by a lot of people don't tie to the article. How can you say they charged 2x the face value? The article says that they made about 20 million by selling about 1 million tickets. Simple math really: 20 mil divided by 1 mil equals 20. That means, on average, they made $20 per ticket. I've never been to a Yankees game, or a rosebowl for that matter, but I believe those tickets sell for a little more than $20.

 

[ArgleBargle]

jgiron: $5 for a ticket? You're lucky if the Ticketmaster "service" charge is less than $5!
I say throw the book at these asshats. Besides jacking up the prices of individual tickets, they have likely artificially inflated the market price of at least some sports/concert tickets, and prevented fans from seeing their favorite teams/bands. Obviously these parasites didn't care how they got rich; they effectively pickpocketed thousands upon thousands of people.

 

[gpj]

They should punish them by making them go to Miley Cirus and Hannah Montanna concerts!

 

[Guest]

I am sick of online scam!

 

[Skippy27]

If I am not mistaken, it is illegal to sell the tickets for greater than face value on the ticket.

 

[itadakimasu]

I didn't know that was illegal... "scalping" seems like simply an accepted part of any event. Events sell out and most of the tickets are people buying them for resale.

 

[bcube]

busted

 

[obiown77]

*Meanwhile in other parts of the country*

Big banks, steal trillions from unknowing tax paying citizens, and hand out big bonuses to the crooks that made it possible, while at the same time pondering up ways to tax us for the air we breath.

 

[twisted politiks]

honestly, they arent doing ANYTHING different than ticketmaster does to the u.s. every day. personally, im sick of huge companies taking advantage of consumers, then suing an individual or group for doing the same thing. if these guys get charged, then ticketmaster and other companies doing the same thing should be charged as well.