With the price of major sporting event tickets getting higher every year, sports fans can sometimes get desperate to see the game, without breaking the bank. Perhaps this explains the recent rise of fake sports tickets in the US. Major league baseball, in particular, has been plagued with a rash of fake ticket scalpers this past season. The problem was especially severe during the World Series, with police making several arrests, and some fans turned away at the gate for having fake tickets.
There’s no denying that it can be difficult to get tickets for the most popular sporting events, especially playoffs and finals. More and more, fans are turning to scalpers selling tickets in front of the stadium to try to get into a sold-out game. While scalping tickets has been around for a very long time, the trend of scalping fake tickets is relatively new. The MBA reports a 200% increase in fake tickets over the past decade.
Not only that, but with recent advancements in technology, the fake tickets are getting much harder to spot. Photo quality printers, scanners, and stock paper have made it easier for fake ticket scalpers to fool customers — and occasionally even ticket handlers at sporting events.
With fake tickets getting more advanced every day, how can you be sure the ticket you are being offered on the street is legitimate? First, you should always be familiar with the appearance of the tickets at this particular sporting arena. Never buy a ticket off the street if it is your first time attending a game at a venue — you will have no knowledge of what the tickets should look like, which will make it easy for you to get ripped off by an unscrupulous ticket seller.
Another tip to avoid buying a fake ticket is too closely examine the seating area listed on the front. If you are familiar at all with the venue, you will probably have a decent idea of the numbering system used for seating. If the seating area displayed on the ticket doesn’t really make sense — and often it doesn’t — you’re most certainly looking at a fake ticket.
Before buying a ticket from a scalper you will also want to examine it up close. If the seller seems nervous about letting you do this, or is evasive in some way, they’re probably fake tickets. If the tickets are for real, a seller will normally have no problem allowing you to touch them or examine them closely.
Finally, always be sure to look for the presence of a bar code on the ticket. All major sporting venues these days use coded tickets. The absence of a clearly discernible barcode is a dead giveaway of a fake ticket.
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Imagine how much they spend just to get the fake tickets looks so real. even the bar codes can easily be altered just to take advantage of those desperate to watch most awaited games.
Comment by swooshblogger — August 27, 2008 @ 8:36 am