Source: Patrick Willis- USA Today
Authorities warn sports fans of ticket scandals, but they still buy from third-party sites all the time. One poor family spent weeks looking for Super Bowl tickets to cheer on the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans and almost ended up without tickets after a Craigslist scam.
The family holds season tickets for the 49ers found four seats for $5,900 on Craigslist, which was about double the value of the tickets. Sharon Osgood contacted the seller by phone and e-mail for a week before agreeing to wire the money all the way to a Baltimore Ravens fan.
When the highly anticipated package arrived on Monday, the family was caught off-guard. Instead of four Super Bowl tickets, the got a picture of quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick and Joe Fiacco with a message, “Enjoy the game!!!! Go Ravens!!! LOL”
The better part of this hoax: the scammer took the time to complete the package with a return address and phone number. Nobody answered the number that was given on the package and I’m going to assume that the address must have been fake as well. The Osgood family reported a police report and thought they were going to watch the game from home.
A few hours later, Ticketmaster CEO, Nathan Hubbard called the Osgood family and offered them four free tickets to the Super Bowl. On top of that, Hubbard arranged for Sharon and her boyfriend to have breakfast with NFL legend, Troy Aikman.
Even before that news was released, the 49ers front office contacted the family to offer them tickets as well. The family is still out $5,900, but I think the fact that they now hold five free tickets to the game makes up for it.
I give credit to the 49ers organization and Ticketmaster for making this family’s dream realistic, but people really need to start taking more precautions with third-party tickets.
