Several Pittsburgh Penguin hockey fans eager to watch Game Four of the Stanley Cup finals on May 31 were disappointed after the tickets they bought from scalpers turned out to be counterfeit. However, police were able to arrest the culprits.
The tickets were purchased outside of the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, hours before Saturday night’s game between the Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit won the game and leads the series 3-1.
Police were alerted to the scam after fans with the counterfeit tickets were turned away from the door by venue staff who scanned the tickets and quickly identified them as fakes. With the aid of several of the victims, police were able to identify and arrest the three men accused of selling up to $2,400 worth of forged tickets. The men have been charged with forgery and theft by deception.
In a video story, Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate KDKA reported on one victim, who paid $650 for a pair of the counterfeit tickets. His cooperation with police led to the arrest of one ticket scalper. The video can be seen here.
KDKA also reported that the tickets show a game start time of 8:80 p.m. rather than 8:30 p.m. And, according to the police complaint, “The tickets were on a different type of paper and the word ‘Mellon’ was misspelled (MELON).”
Ticket scalpers have long sold counterfeit tickets at high-profile events like the Stanley Cup finals and the World Series. The practice still thrives in part due to advancements made in counterfeiting technology.
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I really do not feel sorry for the people who bought fake tickets. It made sound cold, however, the buyer needs to be catious. You have to be pretty stupid to buy a ticket that says 8:80pm and melon. What I do to make sure tickets are real is let one person go in with one and once he/she is in call you up and then you give the scalper the money and have him walk you in. Be smart!
I would question the last paragraph of the article and argue that ticket scalpers don’t sell counterfeit tickets. Rather, ticket counterfeiters sell counterfeit tickets. Scalpers / brokers wouldn’t tarnish their name by selling counterfeit tickets — it wouldn’t make good business sense.
A ticket broker or ticket scalper is just that. A counterfeiter is a counterfeiter
I agree with the above comment