Seldom do you hear good news about a story of a ticket buyer who was scammed out of tickets and money. Most of the time, that buyer usually contacts his state legislator or calls an attorney. For a consumer who went by the name of “J.B.”, all he wanted was his tickets.
“We ordered tickets for two home New York Yankees games Aug. 15 and 16 from StubHub (an online ticket broker) and sent out our payment,” he said in a letter written to the ‘Action Line’ at the South Bend Tribune. “And it turns out it was all fraud.”
He went on to explain that he was scammed out of tickets by someone posing as StubHub, using their copyrighted information. The Tribune contacted the secondary ticket company, to see what could be done to help.
It turns out J.B.’s actual name is Jonathan Bajdek who, according to previous articles by the newspaper, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at six weeks old and had a life expectancy of only 18 years. He now has a bachelor’s degree from Holy Cross and is currently attending graduate school.
“I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. I live every day to the fullest,” he said.
StubHub was able to come to the aid of Bajdek, giving him tickets to replace those that he thought he previously ordered.
“His story is very inspiring and we wanted to help him get to the game, as I found out that sports-related activities have been one of his main crutches,” Joellen Ferrer of StubHub’s corporate communications department told TicketNews. “Fortunately, we were able to donate our corporate seats and get him into the game.”
Ferrer explained that e-mail fraud is not uncommon, and is an unfortunate situation for all involved.
“StubHub has a number of precautions on the site, warning fans of fraudulent e-mails and advising to only purchase tickets directly through the site, not an outside party,” she said to the Tribune. “J.B. was an unfortunate victim, and under normal circumstances, we are unable to offer the buyer anything.”
She added that Bajdek’s unique situation was an exception to the company’s “FanProtect” policies.
