Editor: A number of people have been taken in by a concert ticket scam involving the upcoming One Direction concert on July 27.
My daughter answered an ad on Craigslist for One Direction tickets. The ad offered floor tickets, row 6, seats 5 and 6, for sale for $600. My daughter contacted the seller and was told they were still available. There was a hard copy with a receipt.
My daughter and husband made arrangements to meet a girl by the name of Sara at the Central City Mall in Surrey. They met her, my husband checked out the tickets and felt they were real tickets and there was no fraud. They handed over the money and the exchange was made.
One week later, my daughter was on Craigslist just checking to see what else was being offered for sale. She noticed an ad offering exactly the same seats for sale for the same price. The posting had just been put up that day.
We contacted this girl on two different phones to ask if the tickets were still available and to confirm if they were in fact floor row 6, seats 5 and 6.
She confirmed this, and we arranged a meeting for the next day (which we did not go to). Instead, we called the police in the hopes that they would show up with us and have her arrested, or at least be able to help us out.
The police told us there was nothing they could do, unless there were more people who came forward who had bought the same tickets. I asked how we were to find more people that had fallen victim to this scam, as most people will not find out they have been scammed until they arrive at he concert and are not allowed in because the tickets are not real.
There is going to be a whole bunch of very devastated young teens and young adults.
These tickets are so real-looking that when I went to Ticketmaster, they said they were the best copies they had ever seen. No wonder we were tricked.
The biggest thing which made the Ticketmaster rep realize that they were fake was that the event number on the top right of the ticket is EMG0727, and the actual event number is EGM0727.
The fakes ticket has the letters G and M reversed. I have attached a picture of the tickets and the receipt we were given.
I really hope that you will be able to help us get this out there before there are any more victims. The thought of all these girls being as disappointed as my daughter and her friend just breaks my heart.
These two 13-year-old girls worked very hard for this money and now it is gone and they have nothing.
Joanne Mierzejewski,
Langley
Editor’s note — Vancouver police have opened an investigation into fake One Direction tickets. Those who think they have been victimized by someone selling One Direction tickets can contact the Vancouver Police Department’s financial crimes unit at 604-717-2569.