North Texas fans report vanishing tickets

NBC 5 Responds to a growing number of fans reporting disappearing Ticketmaster tickets.

They say thousands of dollars worth of event tickets were transferred from their accounts to other people without permission.

Read on for what we know and what you can do to protect your seats.

‘MY TICKETS ARE GONE’

After locking down Usher tickets for her and her husband back in February, Conya Harris-Carter found herself scrambling just days before the concert in Dallas.

“I'm really on the edge because I'm like, oh my God, my tickets are gone,” Harris-Carter said.

The fan shared a September 21 email from Ticketmaster customer support, saying Harris-Carter’s digital tickets, worth more than $2,000, were on their way to someone else.

“I immediately looked at the emails like, wait a minute, what? I didn't transfer my tickets to anybody,” said Harris-Carter.

When she tried to log into her Ticketmaster account, Harris-Carter said her password didn’t work. She changed it again.

“Once I was able to do that is when I saw that my tickets had, in fact, been transferred to a stranger that I don't even know,” Harris-Carter explained.

The Ticketmaster support email was timestamped at 10:17 p.m. on a Saturday. Harris-Carter said she called Ticketmaster customer support as soon as the phone lines opened the next morning. She said reps told her Ticketmaster would investigate.

“I legitimately paid for these and someone has been able to come in and take them,” Harris-Carter said. “I don't get it.”

Courtney Peck, a lifelong New Orleans Saints fan, tells NBC 5 Responds that she, too, was trying to restore tickets to two upcoming Saints games after receiving notice the tickets were transferred without her permission.

The value of the tickets is around $1,300. That doesn’t include the cost of travel Peck booked for trips to see the Saints take on the Kansas City Chiefs and LA Chargers.

“I just want my tickets. It's not even about the money,” Peck said. “I just want the assurance that I will get my tickets back, I'll be at the game in the seats that I chose.”

It’s not just North Texas fans. Across the country, consumers tell our NBC Responds teams about unauthorized ticket transfers.

“Oh, I was devastated,” said Breauna Hannon in San Diego.

“People spend their hard-earned money to go do this and then they’re just stolen away,” said Brenda Azzolino in New Jersey.

Alexandra Passer told NBC New York’s Lynda Baquero, “We’re at a loss.”

“Between 4:16 a.m. and 4:20 a.m., they took my tickets and successfully transferred them to themselves,” Jess Mantione told NBC 10 Responds in Philadelphia.

TICKETMASTER: SECURE FAN EMAIL

NBC 5 Responds asked Ticketmaster about the North Texas fans’ tickets.

In an email, a spokesperson wrote, “Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate and successfully return tickets for fans.”

Ticketmaster also says fans should set strong unique passwords, especially for their email, where Ticketmaster says it often sees security issues start.

The spokesperson also wrote, in part, “Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”

Earlier this year, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, said there was “unauthorized activity” in a third-party cloud database that held the information of some customers. Live Nation said that may include email, phone number and encrypted credit card data. It said passwords were not exposed.

“As serious as that was, there was no breach of the sign-in credentials,” Live Nation Executive Vice President Dan Wall told our NBC 5 Chicago’s PJ Randhawa on Wednesday.

Wall said sign-in credentials may be compromised elsewhere and hackers use them to access accounts of customers that haven’t updated their passwords in a while or who use the same password on multiple websites.

“The reality is that the number one problem with account takeovers for our site or for any other site is old credentials that have been compromised and that these bad actors can find on the dark web,” Wall said.

HOW TO CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT

For any online account you have, the Identity Theft Resource Center recommends consumers strengthen passwords. Include symbols and a mix of upper-case and lower-case letters.

Don’t use the same password on different websites. If one online account is compromised, it would mean others are in danger too. Where available, enable two-factor authentication. It would require a security code if someone tries to log into your account from an unrecognized browser or device.

“I now know the importance of a strong password,” Peck said. “Ticketmaster, I feel, could have done more. They could have done more to notify me. Notify us, I should say, because it's not just me who's going through it.”

After NBC 5 Responds reached out to Ticketmaster about Harris-Carter and Peck’s tickets, Ticketmaster said it restored both consumers’ tickets. Both fans confirmed their tickets were restored and they’ve secured their accounts.

For consumers with Ticketmaster accounts, change your password. Here’s a link to Ticketmaster’s instructions to reset passwords.

Ensure it’s strong and unique. Update your personal email passwords too.

NBC 5 Responds is committed to researching your concerns and recovering your money. Our goal is to get you answers and, if possible, solutions and a resolution. Call us at 844-5RESPND (844-573-7763) or fill out our customer complaint form.