Nessel warns against Detroit Lions playoff ticket scams

Detroit Lions fans shouldn’t let their exuberance over the team’s first home playoff game in over 30 years blind them to being taken advantage of by a ticket scammer.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel encourages those seeking tickets to the North Division champion’s game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at Ford Field to know what precautions to take in order to avoid online scams.

Retail sites such has Ticketmaster have Lions’ Wild Card game tickets at Ford Field selling for thousands of dollars, Nessel notes in a press release. But Lions fans should remain vigilant when looking for tickets on the internet and mindful of scammers who seek to profit from the frenzy surrounding the home team, she says.

“Online ticket sales come with a certain amount of risk,” Nessel said in the release. “It’s easy for scammers to create a phony screenshot of a ticket that doesn’t exist or has previously been sold — possibly more than once. If you’re buying tickets to this weekend’s playoff game at Ford Field, make sure the tickets you pay for are authentic and they will actually get you into the game. Only then will you be able to keep your enthusiasm and your finances secure as you defend the den.”

Con artists have several ways to scam ticket-buyers and ticket-sellers out of their money. Two of those ways involve payment or money app scams and fake check scams.

Payment app scams involve peer-to-peer (P2P) money apps like Apple Pay, Cash App, Circle Pay, Facebook Payments, Google Pay, PayPal, Square Cash, PopMoney, Zelle and Venmo, according to Nessel. P2P scams take many forms and require an extra degree of caution for any transaction with someone you do not know, she says.

Scams to be aware of when using a pay app, Nessel advises, include:

• Scammers impersonating your bank may call to alert you about “suspicious activity” on your account and direct you to send money to yourself or “the bank’s address” to reverse a transaction or to verify the account is not frozen. Your bank will never tell you to send money to anyone, not even yourself.
• Someone claiming to represent a fraud department or merchant can ask you to confirm information such as your bank account username and password, credit-card or debit-card data, or Social Security number. Do not share this information as scammers want to create a P2P account with your information, steal your identity and gain access to your accounts.
• Fraudsters sending spoofed emails warning that an account is about to be suspended and the account holder must enter their password on a spoofed webpage. Generally, payment app vendors will never ask you to enter your password unless you are on the login page.

If you try to sell legitimate tickets online, scammers may use the fake check scam to steal your money. Under that scam, a potential buyer makes an offer and sends a check — perhaps even a cashier’s check — for considerably more than the cost of the tickets and pretends it’s an error, according to the attorney general. They ask the seller to deposit the check and refund them the difference. But the check is counterfeit, and the seller is scammed out of their money plus any other funds from the fake check, as well as bank fees. Banks do not assume those losses.

Nessel offers additional tips when buying tickets online:

• Know your vendor — Make sure you are buying from a reputable website, especially before providing any personal financial information. Anyone can set up a “spoof” website with a web address that is similar to the legitimate ticket seller’s address. Aside from potential licensing and trademark violations, “spoof” websites may offer consumers overpriced or counterfeit tickets and expose the consumer to identity theft.
• Do your research – If you are unfamiliar with a particular ticket vendor, you can call the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Team at 877-765-8388 and ask if there are any complaints on file regarding that seller. Remember, however, that the absence of filed complaints does not guarantee a seller’s legitimacy; it simply means officials have not received any complaints concerning the vendor. As an additional resource, try researching the ticket seller on the Better Business Bureau’s national website.
• Use credit — If you purchase tickets online, especially via an online auction site, it is recommended you complete your transaction using a credit card. That often provides protections that you would not otherwise have if you purchased the tickets using cash, check or money apps. Try to choose sellers with long histories of satisfied customers, and make sure the online bid amount is listed in American dollars.
• Shop securely — If a website begins with “https,” the “s” indicates the website is “secure.” Typically, the “s” will not appear in the web address until you access the order page of the site where you are asked to enter your personal information. Another indicator of a secure website is a graphic of a closed lock located at the bottom of your screen.
  For more details to to the AG’s  Online Ticket Purchasing consumer alert or contact the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Team at:  Consumer Protection Team P.O. Box 30213 Lansing, MI 48909, fax to 517-241-3771 or call 877-765-8388.