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.