AUSTIN (KXAN) — One Austin concertgoer’s tickets were transferred from her Ticketmaster account without permission. And she’s not the only one seeing this issue.
Emiley Parker bought tickets for four concerts this fall at Moody Center and Moody Amphitheater to see Vampire Weekend, Kacey Musgraves, Interpol and Air. Parker said a few weeks ago, she received emails from Ticketmaster saying her tickets had been transferred to a stranger.
“I started freaking out because the concert is next week…I had bought the tickets for me and my friends,” Parker said. “I was the one that had all the tickets on my account, and I’m like, ‘What am I going to do?'”
Worse, she could see her exact seats selling for resale on Ticketmaster’s website.
She immediately called Ticketmaster’s helpline and also did an online search to see if this had happened to anyone else. Parker quickly learned this was not a one-off problem.
“I just see all these news stories pop up of this happening to people,” she said. “It seems like a lot in the past two weeks to a month.”
Ticketmaster users across the country are reporting similar issues in North Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and Chicago.
Not only were her tickets stolen but also tickets she bought for friends. She began to worry after reading online comments from people in the same situation. Several commenters said they couldn’t get their tickets back before the concert and were now trying to get refunds.
“I really don’t want to miss the concert. Like you wait in line to get these tickets to get the perfect seat,” she said. “I just want my seats that I paid for that I waited to get for these different concerts.”
Parker saw success stories on social media that the best way to get help from Ticketmaster was through contacting local news stations, which is exactly what Parker did. KXAN asked Ticketmaster about Parker’s ticket issues. After several emails to Ticketmaster, the ticketing company was able to return Parker her tickets.
The ticketing company said its “digital tracking innovations” have reduced fraud since the times of paper and PDF tickets. The technology has also helped investigate individual situations and restore tickets.
“Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans,” a spokesperson said.
A Moody Center spokesperson said the venue is not aware of any widespread issues with unauthorized ticket transfers. But the center recommends regularly updating passwords to protect accounts and data for any ticketing platform or app.
How to prevent ticket thefts
Ticketmaster encourages fans to use strong, unique passwords for accounts, including personal emails where Ticketmaster often sees security issues start, a spokesperson said.
Frequently, the ticket seller is able to restore tickets to their owner.
Ticketmaster also has tips for buying legitimate tickets to avoid fake tickets and scams. They include:
- Buying tickets from official sources
- Double-checking the URL when you’re buying and avoiding sites and Google search results that look like Ticketmaster but are not
- Using extreme caution when buying tickets from people on social media and unofficial platforms
Recent Ticketmaster battles
The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation in May, accusing the industry giant of monopolization across the live entertainment industry for concert promotions and primary ticketing.
The DOJ said fans are “deprived of ticketing innovation and forced to use outdated technology while paying more for tickets than fans in other countries.”
In a blog post on its website, Live Nation’s Executive Vice President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Dan Wall wrote that the “lawsuit distracts from real solutions that would decrease prices and protect fans.”
The lawsuit follows fan outrage over ticket sales—including a Ticketmaster site crash while Taylor Swift fans and bots alike tried to buy Eras Tour presale tickets—and a U.S. Senate hearing in 2023 about the ticket controversy.
Earlier this year, Ticketmaster reported a data breach after hackers accessed customers’ personal information in April and May, according to USA Today. Last week, Rolling Stone reported a class action lawsuit was filed over the 2024 breach.
