Ticketgate Minnesota: Counterfeit tickets on the loose
One corrupt ticket scalper had a field day last week in Minnesota by selling counterfeit Wild playoff tickets off Craigslist. A report by Mara Gottfried of the St. Paul Pioneer Press indicated, “At least 20 hockey fans were out of luck for Wednesday's Wild playoff game after being sold fake tickets, according to St. Paul police.”
All 20+ instances seemingly stemmed from the same source, as each of the victims offered quite similar accounts of their ticket-buying experience and the physical description of the seller. The tickets in question were all sold for $150 each, and were supposed to be good for seats in the lower level of what they call “the X”, which typically retail for up to $450 per seat.
In the early stages of investigation, it’s being speculated that this situation arose when a season ticket holder sold his tickets to a third party, who then in turn printed numerous counterfeit copies and sold them online.
Although no accounts of fraudulent tickets were reported for Monday’s game, the Wild urge fans to be cautious when buying tickets from third parties, and suggest that tickets only be purchased off of the Wild’s official website, Ticketmaster, or from someone they know and trust.
Wild executive vice president Jamie Spencer released a comment Thursday saying, “Unfortunately, demand has created this situation… if [fans] choose to purchase tickets from an unauthorized agent in the secondary market, [they] risk purchasing counterfeit or invalid tickets."
