Lehi woman loses $1,000 in NBA All-Star Game tickets scam

LEHI, Utah — Sunday night’s NBA All-Star Game is sold out and has been for a week. If you want tickets, it means buying them from someone who already has them. But how do you know if the tickets you are buying are any good?

Jenny Williams turned to KSL Classifieds in search of two tickets.

“My daughter and son really wanted to go to the NBA All-Star Game,” she said.

She found someone willing to part with two seats for $1,000. Not a great deal, but in line with what some tickets were going for with popular ticket re-sellers.

Buying directly from someone appealed to Williams because it meant avoiding nearly $400 in fees. “The fees are just ridiculous,” she said.

Williams sent the seller the $1,000 through money transfer apps and then – you guessed it. “Yep, never heard from him again, once we had the money,” she said.

“Whenever there’s an event that a lot of people are trying to get to that’s competitive and hard to get tickets for, there’s going to be some scammers out there hoping to get a slice of that pie,” said Britta Clark with the Utah Better Business Bureau. Every year BBB hears many complaints from people who were ripped off trying to buy tickets.

Her advice? “Whenever possible you want to purchase from the venue,” she said. “Many official ticket sales agents do offer secondary options but once those all sell out, you’re pretty much at the mercy of a secondary reseller or broker. And those can sometimes be where you start to get into scammy territory.”

There’s more information in Matt’s complete story, at KSLTV.com.