Somehow people are still getting scammed when buying event tickets.
You really want to take your three kids to a basketball game but tickets are $200 each on the ticket websites online. The tickets online come with a 100% money back guarantee. But wow that’s $800 bucks you think. I wonder if I can get a great deal somewhere. You go online to a classified or social networking site and find a seller for the same section but for only $100 each but he wants cash only.
You do a quick calculation that means you would only spend $400, so you would save $400 bucks or 50% compared to all those other sites selling tickets at $800. Man you sure look like the smart one here.
So you arrange to meet the guy (in this case we will call it a guy, but it could be gal too). He has four pieces of paper with bar codes on them. You wonder for a second if these are legitimate and ask the seller if these are real tickets. You mention you are taking your three kids to their first game. He says of course man, totally real. That makes you feel better. The seller having sensed your concern, says since this is your kids first game I’ll sell them all to you for $300 as your such an awesome dad. You light up and take $300 out of your pocket and quickly hand it over. You walk away thinking you’re an amazing negotiator and just got an amazing deal. You and your kids go to the event but then to your amazement, your tickets don’t scan. The attendant says that this same ticket had been used several times and there is a group of people over there (pointing to your right) also denied entry with the same ticket. Your are devastated. You got scammed by the oldest trick in the book.
When a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. When an item is abnormally much lower in price compared to the selling market it is probably a scam. If the whole market is at the same price for a similar item, that is the market. There is no reason to drop the price of an item so low other than to get a super quick sale. All you would have to do to get a quick sale would be to lower the price only slightly less than market price to be the first one to sell. Example would be $25 off a $200 ticket to be considered a great deal.
By lowering the price so much as this shady seller did, he played on the dads greed factor. The deal was so good that he got caught in the greed trap.
The dad not wanting to let his kids down as they were at the gates to the game, went on the first ticket site he first saw the tickets for and bought them all for $800 on his credit card and enjoyed the game with this kids.
So he spent a total of $1,100 for the tickets he should have bought originally for $800 had be been smart.
This type of story unfortunately happens all the time when you buy off online classified sites or pay with cash for tickets.
When you buy from a reputable website they should offer you a 100% guarantee. Check their reviews and pay with a credit card. This way you have the website guarantee if there is an issue and also your credit card guarantee as well to make sure the website upholds the terms of sale.
Don’t be the one that gets scammed. Be the smart one. Cash for tickets = never
Use a credit card only or Paypal!