Dozens of fans have complained that their concert tickets suddenly disappeared from their Ticketmaster accounts over the past few weeks, causing ticketholders to lose up to thousands of dollars.
One family from Gig Harbor, Washington told the local news outlet KIRO 7 they are out more than $1,200 for 14 tickets. Virginia Lasky told the publication that she was getting ready for work when multiple emails from Ticketmaster suddenly came in — notifying her that her tickets to upcoming shows and musicals were transferred from her Ticketmaster account to someone else.
“When I clicked on the tickets, they had one-by-one all been transferred and claimed,” Lasky said, noting that they were transferred to a total stranger’s account.
The same situation happened to a Lancaster, Pennsylvania woman, whose Pink concert tickets were transferred without her permission. Amanda Shaffer explained to WGAL News 8 that she had received the tickets back in December as a Christmas gift from her husband.
“And then this morning when I woke up is when I saw an email saying, ‘Hey, your transfer to this person was successful,'” Shaffer said. “And I was like, ‘Wait. I’m sorry. What?'”
The tickets were reportedly transferred to “bdbddh” and when she looked for her exact seats on Ticketmaster, she saw they were being resold under “verified resale.”
Over in Connecticut, Blaine Heck had a pair of $3,500 Taylor Swift tickets stolen from her account. She said that someone had hacked her Ticketmaster account and swiped the pair. The tickets were restored within hours after MarketWatch reached out to Ticketmaster. Similarly, an Indiana resident lost her Swift tickets vanish from her account and after numerous attempts contacting Ticketmaster, she reached out to the TV station WTHR. Only after the station contacted Ticketmaster were the tickets restored to her account.
They’re not alone; complaints have been rolling-in on social media across all genres of music.
Tickets Stolen from Ticketmaster account
byu/joey_jac13 ingratefuldead
My Ticketmaster tickets got stolen :/
byu/Better-Vanilla-1639 inzayn
Ticketmaster Hacked & Stolen!
byu/TheBoom_ElegantE4u inJellyRoll615
Awareness post- stolen tickets
byu/duckiedoo102 inerastourtickets
These instances of Ticketmaster account hacks follow a massive data breach earlier this year. The “hacker” group ShinyHunters claimed it cracked the Ticketmaster system and accessed some 1.3 terabytes of data, which includes names, addresses, credit card numbers, phone numbers, and payment details, involving 560 million customers globally. The information was said to be up for sale on the dark web, with an asking price of $500,000.
| READ: Live Nation Confirms Data Breach in SEC Filing |
The breach led to a class action lawsuit, which alleges Live Nation and Ticketmaster failed to implement “adequate and reasonable” cybersecurity procedures and protocols, enabling an “unauthorized third party to gain access to and obtain former and current Ticketmaster customers’ private information from Ticketmaster’s internal computer systems.”
While more than half a billion user accounts were reportedly affected in the breach, Ticketmaster said that user’s passwords were not exposed in the incident, telling KIRO 7 that “the vast majority of what we’re seeing is because scammers have accessed a fan’s email account.”
Additionally, Ticketmaster is currently the target of an antitrust lawsuit alongside its parent company Live Nation by the Department of Justice and 39 states, as well as the District of Columbia. The suit aims to break-up the pair, alleging monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices.
