In a class action lawsuit filed by eight disgruntled customers, forward ticket Web site FirstDIBZ is accused of allegedly reneging on thousands of dollars worth of “DIBZ” payments surrounding tickets for the recently completed NFL playoffs and Super Bowl.
The alleged payments were the subject of the massive scam that nearly felled the company over the winter, for which FirstDIBZ tried to settle by paying reparations to dozens of aggrieved customers.
While FirstDIBZ has said it has tried to make good on as many of the payments to customers as possible, the company has been dogged continually by reams of complaints the last couple of months from brokers and fans for more supposed fraudulent orders, unresponsive customer service and not making full and complete restitution. The company claimed it had fallen victim to a massive scam where DIBZ orders were illegally sold by a few hustlers, and then those orders were resold by unsuspecting customers.
The lawsuit was filed late last month in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and in it the plaintiffs – Andrew Duffy, George Adams, Gregg Harder, Christopher Jackman, Jason Lee, Jose Ordaz, Vincent Ruggiero and Sohail Shah – claim that FirstDIBZ “allowed fraudulent sellers to conduct transactions in the uDIBZ marketplace, and users, consumers, subscribers, and customers of FirstDIBZ.com were detrimentally affected and suffered economic damages.” The company also was told by customers “that the uDIBZ marketplace was vulnerable to fraudulent activity in the Fall of 2008, when hundreds of fraudulent DIBZ for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox to advance to the World Series were sold on the uDIBZ marketplace.”
Click here to read the lawsuit.
The lawsuit goes on to say that, “On and before January 2009, Defendant had knowledge that FirstDIBZ.com was vulnerable to fraudulent sellers entering the marketplace. Despite this knowledge, Defendant failed to employ reasonable and available procedures and safeguards to protect the users, consumers, subscribers, and customers of FirstDIBZ.com from fraud.”
Throughout the lawsuit, the plaintiffs detail the painful amounts of money they allegedly lost as a result of the scam and FirstDIBZ’s subsequent inaction on their behalf.
TicketNews posed a series of questions to the executives of FirstDIBZ about the lawsuit and the status of the company’s plan to restructure, but the company said it could not respond at this time. The plaintiffs’ Chicago-based attorney, Daniel Edelman of Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin, LLC, also did not respond to questions. In addition, TicketNews tried to reach all eight plaintiffs but was unsuccessful by press time.
The lawsuit also said that the company “has purposefully retained monies due to Plaintiffs and Class Members, and has failed to refund monies that are rightfully Plaintiffs and Class Members. Upon information provided by Plaintiffs and Class members, Defendant has and intends to continue depriving Plaintiff and Class members of their money for periods exceeding 45 days without payment of any interest.”
The plaintiffs are seeking “compensatory damages, interest and allowable costs of suit,” but a specific amount is not disclosed.
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firstdibz is a scam and needs to go down
i’m out like $500… every time i called they said oh check is coming. just wait. then i saw the superbowl scam.. these guys suck – how can they just turn off the phone line and not talk to customers? i just want my money back and they can’t do that?!!!
I believe it is too late to join the lawsuit as a “named plaintiff”; however, since this is a class action complaint everyone that was adversely affected by the FirsDIBZ fraud may be eligible to receive reparations if the lawsuit is successful. Although people that signed the legal release may not be eligible; however, I’m sure that is still debatable (especially since FirstDIBZ was not able to fulfill their payments for many people that signed the “reparations plan”). I am not an attorney, but that is my understanding of the situation.
Is more info finally coming out about the scammers??? Whats their situation?
hahah
Yeah the one kid is from Lincoln, Nebraska and his partner is from Des Moines Iowa. Just too bad too see it come to this.
Chavet Sikes? Same guy busted at College World Series for running a massive operation at the doorsteps of the CWS a few years back? A character at heart, you can read all about him on Google.
What in the world are you talking about? These people brought a lawsuit against FirstDIBZ to get their money back (and included the potential for a class action complaint)… and you are talking about their names finally being exposed? You make absolutely no sense!!!
what are you talking about? stop directing blame to people who are trying to get their money back through a legal process. The blame here should be directed at FisrtDibz for negligience, awful customer service and with holding people’s hard earned money for way TOO long. I have never seen a company handle so many things so badly. I am on this list and know none of the other people. Stop throwing insults out to a group of people trying to get their money back. I am not the problem here. FirstDibz is the problem. Don’t lose sight of that.
Is it to late to join the class action lawsuit??? Someone please respond.
FD told me months ago that it was atleast 7
First Dibz repeatedly has made promises and then not lived up to them. The concept is great but if the company does not act with integrity, which First Dibz does not, then they should be put out of business. The whole premise of the business is being able to believe that the tickets will be there in the end. Without that you’ve got nothing, which is what many of us ended up with. Then to top it off, they don’t answer phones or return phone or e-mail messages. I hope they go under and a reputable company starts a similar business.
I heard that one if not a few of the udibz sellers settles with firstdibz, which probably reduces their liability to the individuals. But im not an attorney either.
I would love to know how much dibz received from the scammers and what they did with the money??? Also I would love to know how many tickets each of the scammers was liable for so we could get some sort of idea of the amount of the fraud, by being so secretive about everything it just looks like dibz is trying to hide something, which maybe they are.
There is another similar company in yoonew. I read how they had trouble with a final four a few years ago and were on the brink of bankruptcy but the founder liquidated his 401K to get everyone their tickets. Firstdibz could take a lesson from that, although I imagine at this point they have lost a lot of customers forever.
four scammers total. Two of them from somewhere out in the midwest that worked this as a team and then another guy from nj and a guy from nv. those are the four scammers i am aware of. hope they lock them all up for a very long time.
However flawed their original business model, was it seems to have changed again. From the comments made on this discussion board and previous boards over the last two months, FirstDibz now seem to be using customer funds to pay for other customer withdraws and possibly company bills. If this is so and they are still trading and taking clients money, they have started on the slippery slope to running a Ponzi scheme? So shouldn’t authorities be notified?
Interesting – First Dibz decided to act in the opposite manner when they confronted problems. They decided to try to cover their own ass and leave their loyal customer out on the lerch. First Dibz controlled the business – if they got scammed, it was their responsibility, they should pay the price and fight the scammers instead of passing the buck to the customer who believed what First Dibz told them. I hope they get the scammers but in my mind, First Dibz’s actions were worst than the scammers.
I hope they just pay us our money. Most of us knew all along the udibz weren’t legit, and only bought because firstdibz repeatedly said they would guarantee them. Now they can’t even refund us. The last thing I want them to do is use our money to try and sue the scammers, when they’re probably not going to get any money from them. They created this whole mess and keep looking for someone else to blame it on.
What do you mean not legit, I thought they were brokers shorting every team (and firstdibz had checked out anyone selling to money to insure they would be good for covering the dibz) thinking they would be fine and would fill them on the streets. I didnt think they were scam artists planning on walking away and creating a huge mess.
Any reasonable person could recognize that this company operates a flawed business model. The purpose of FirstDIBZ was to sell rights to live events much like a stock option or commodities option, etc. FirstDIBZ major flaw was that it charged customers then entire price of the ticket. Customers should only have been paying a premium for the option to purchase the ticket if the event took place. Instead, the geniuses at FirstDIBZ expected people to pay the entire price of the ticket and a premium. Therefore, if the event did not occur you lost the premium and ticket price. I mean come one, what a scam!!!!!!! Anyone who bought tickets on this site deserves a lifetime supply of gullible points!!!!
Secondly, it was obvious that the FirstDIBZ marketplace could be rife with scams. What would stop someone from writing options on the Kansas City Royals making the World Series, or the Oklahoma City Thunder making the NBA Finals, or even the Detroit Lions making the Super Bowl. These are extreme cases, but it was reasonable for unethical ticket sellers to target the Arizona Cardinals, since it was virtually impossible that they would make the Super Bowl.
In closing, the Web site has merits if operated correctly, i.e. consumers pay a premium, not the entire price of the ticket.
Well at least we know now the names of the people who long ago decided to make it nearly impossible for ANYONE to get any real resolution. And isn’t it an interesting list!! At least two of the names have long been considered to be a part of the fraud team. Step by step, the fabric of their deceit seems to be unraveling. Add these names to the names tagged in the first two TicketNews pieces, and you have the core of the current multi-state investigation. With any luck, FirstDIBZ will soon be able to put this behind them and GET TO PAYING US OUR MONEY!!