Police Investigating Online George Strait Concert Ticket Scam
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The George Strait concert in Arlington this weekend is a hot sale, and scammers are burning victims out of thousands of dollars with fake tickets.
Country legend George Strait will play his final show Saturday at AT&T Stadium with some of the biggest names in country music as special guests, and because of this momentous occasion, prices on the secondary market have skyrocketed - leaving people scrambling to find tickets wherever they can.
And with desperate people come those looking to take advantage of them - and police that are looking to bust the scammers.
Terrell Police they are looking for a woman who has scammed one person they know of with phony tickets that she is selling for thousands of dollars to the Saturday night concert.
The online ad that's taken in victims appears to come from the same woman, she has a story about George Strait tickets she cannot use and will part with them if you meet in a public place and have cash.
Bill Willard of Forney was the first to answer the Craigslist add for the hard-to-get tickets that he said he paid $1,800 for.
Police Investigating Concert Ticket Scam
Clyde Scott's 17-year old daughter paid $1,500 to the same woman. When his daughter brought the tickets home...he checked them out only to realize they were fakes.
Terrell Police are hot on the trail of the suspect. TPD Captain A.D. Sansom says the key to spotting a fraud is cash for tickets.
Sansom says you can save yourself from getting ripped off by buying from a retail seller like Ticketmaster or Stubhub.
According Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, the tickets in question are "completely fabricated," and "will not work for entry."
They further advise that you should never buy tickets from 'the guy on the street' (or the online equivalent).
According to a release from the company, "Counterfeit tickets are very similar counterfeit money, fake can look very real. Fans should never assume they can look at a ticket to see if it is real. Sometimes you can tell immediately if it is fake, but no one can tell by simply looking at it if the ticket is real. This means fans must buy from authorized sources to guarantee the tickets are real."
According to TiqIQ, the average ticket price for the George Strait is currently $688.93, which is 229.64% above the $208.99 tour average.
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