MarkB452 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 At the Ravens game, I saw 2 cases of fake tickets in section 124. First one was 3 people (Ravens fans) with tickets that looked pretty good, but were for seats that belonged to STHs. The Ravens fans showed up just before kickoff said they paid $150 a piece on Craigs list. They looked like the kind of tickets that the Redskins Ticket office prints (not the kind with the player picture on them). Remembering what I had read on this board, I told them to turn over their tickets and scratch them with a key. If the ticket was legit, a Redskins logo would appear. Sure enough, the tickets that the STH's had showed the logo, The Ravens fans tickets did not scratch off at all, but the WEIRD thing was they had bar codes on them and they claimed that the bar codes were scanned to get them into the stadium. So, they got the ushers. One of the STHs told me what happened next....they took the tickets to customer service where a woman got on the phone and made some calls. She told the STH his tickets were genuine and the others were indeed fake. Not sure what happened to the people with the fake tickets, but the STH said he saw them in the concourse, so my GUESS is that the Redskins accomodated them, even though the policy is NOT to honor fake tickets. The other case happened later in the game. 2 Ravens fans showed up with tickets that were HORRIBLE fakes. They looked like tickets you would get at a movie theater...not even close. The price on the ticket said $130 which is not even right. LL sideline tickets are $99 not including tax. This was in the seats right in front of the previous fakes....really weird. The fakes were so bad, I told them they fake. They both were a little buzzed and left without involving the ushers. My question - Why are people getting in the stadium with fake tickets? Shouldn't the bar codes prevent this or are the scammers coming up with a way to fake out the bar code system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zCommander Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 There is a bar code font. If you know what numbers the bar code should have then anyone can print using a laser printer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balki1867 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Hmmm, I remember reading a hacker article a long time ago about using photoshop to put an awesome seat location on nosebleeds tickets to move up in a stadium/arena for an event. This is especially easy in the modern age of printed tickets that get printed off your home printer. I guess it's possible that whoever sold the Ravens' fans the tickets did the same thing to get a higher price for the seats (i.e.: took a legit barcode for 400-level tickets, and counterfeited a ticket in a better seat location and then sold them for the going price at that location). I'm hoping the Redskins ticket office handled it professionally and appropriately. That sucks for those fans though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB452 Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 BTW, the first of the fakes had the Redskins Charitable Foundation logo printed on the back. Based on what I am seeing here, I wonder if someone got some tickets from a blood drive and "upgraded" them. I am assuming the Skins took care of the first set of folks as the STH saw them on the concourse later in the game. ---------- Post added December-9th-2012 at 10:08 PM ---------- There is a bar code font. If you know what numbers the bar code should have then anyone can print using a laser printer. >> Yes, but the scanners validate the bar code. For instance, if you lose your tickets, the ticket office can issue you new ones and will deactivate the bar codes on the old ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afkidd Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 happens all the time. my buddy bought tickets off stubhub to the ravens-pats game this year. there were people already in the seats, so they got the ushers. they were told their tickets were fake, they got kicked out of the stadium. stubhub gave them better seats to the ravens-steelers game last week, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balki1867 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 happens all the time. my buddy bought tickets off stubhub to the ravens-pats game this year. there were people already in the seats, so they got the ushers. they were told their tickets were fake, they got kicked out of the stadium. stubhub gave them better seats to the ravens-steelers game last week, though. I was gonna say... that's a supremely dumb move (on the sellers' part) if they're trying to scam people through stubhub. They actually buy the closest equivalent (or better) seats for the scammed party and charge the seller for them. Glad it (generally) worked out for your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drjiveturkey Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I guess one think the could have happened is that they purchased cheap SRO tickets to get in, then have a fake ticket available to show he ushers to sit in a better position Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Last House Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I was at the game today and bought a nice 100 level ticket from a scalper, as soon as he gave me the ticket I could tell something wasn't right. The ticket looked like a regular ticket from a season ticket holder, but the paper was not as thick, no perforations on the edge of the ticket, the back of the ticket was off center and when i looked close the front was not printed clear, it looked like it was done on a laser printer or something. I told the scalper I wanted my money back because I thought something was off about the ticket and he gave it back to me right away without issue.The ticket looked bad but, if you didn't know what a real ticket looked like or were half drunk you might not question it. Last week at the Monday night game my dad and I got 2 LL tickets one section apart, from a scalper. When my dad got to his seat there was someone sitting there who said it was his seat but had no ticket, the guy claimed he dropped the ticket in the parking lot. My dad got an usher and somehow the usher sided with the guy WITHOUT a ticket. At the half I got another usher who took the guy without a ticket (who was now claiming he dropped the ticket in the bathroom and that's where we found it) and I to guest services. At guest services the guy without a ticket said he had a receipt on his phone from Stubhub and showed the lady, the lady said she thought I had a fake ticket, I told her I didn't think so and she got on the phone. When she got off the phone she said she was going to run the numbers on the ticket and the person who had the right numbers gets the seat. I said great and she called in the numbers, when she got off the phone she said my ticket was NOT fake, but the guy with the Stubhub receipt on his phone had the right numbers too. At that point she didn't know what to do so she just said the guy without a ticket can have the seat. The guy without a ticket was rude the entire time with everyone involved in trying to figure out the situation and the guest services people were inept at best in handling the situation. I would have been fine with them taking me or my dad and I to standing room only or upper level anything, they didn't even give me a "sorry" nothing. My dad ended up leaving for the car after the 3rd QTR and I watched from my LL seat, but the game was spoiled for me, and my dad is soured on going down to the games. I think the guy without a ticket scalped his LL ticket outside and got in with a cheap upper level ticket or a fake, then he tore the 1 good ticket he and his buddy had in half and they both used that to show the usher, because all they had was one ticket ripped in 2. Anyway, I had a great time today, but people need to be careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky52Mc Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Well I've seen roughly 4-5 of my drunk buddies literally walk PAST the scanning people without question. Get patted down and just walk right in. I stood there for a second in shock and was just like...ok well you do have tickets so lets move. (Again, they actually had real tickets, but were too drunk to realize this scanning process) I wouldn't put it past ANYONE to just sneak right in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
County1883 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Well I've seen roughly 4-5 of my drunk buddies literally walk PAST the scanning people without question. Get patted down and just walk right in. I stood there for a second in shock and was just like...ok well you do have tickets so lets move. (Again, they actually had real tickets, but were too drunk to realize this scanning process)I wouldn't put it past ANYONE to just sneak right in. Do you not have turnstiles where only 1 person at a time can get through? The way you describe it sounds like security on the gates with bar scanners etc. This same procedure happens at the WIMBLEDON TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS. The 1st year i went i didnt know the procedure and managed to walk through without being asked for a ticket or anything..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark The Homer Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Adding this to the everything thread - thanks Mark! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFKFedEx Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Do you not have turnstiles where only 1 person at a time can get through? The portable turnstile gates at FedEx were retired within the past couple of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godfather151981 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 After reading this thread, all I can say is WOW. It's amazing to me the type of quagmire's that innocent people can get into with game tickets. The one about the ticket office siding with a guy WITHOUT a ticket particularly rubbed me the wrong way. I'm a season ticket holder and I've been selling my seats on Ticket Exchange and then getting other seats off of stub hub but after reading this thread I might stop doing that. (Stub Hub or Ticket Exchange is probably pretty safe, but it sounds like even those methods aren't fool proof.) If the Skins win the division I'll just take my normal seats for the playoff game(s). I've had people (normally visiting fans) come into my section and swear above heck or high water that I was sitting in their seats. They're usually less than friendly about it also, but seeing that I've been sitting there since 2005 I know I'm always in the right when this happens. Generally the person is one section over or one or two rows down, but I'm not sure what I'd do if someone came and literally had a ticket for my seats. As a season ticket holder I assume it would be an open-and-shut case seeing that the seats are in my name and so forth, however after hearing some of these stories it makes me wonder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bch89 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 This happened to my friend yesterday. He bought tickets for the LL off ebay and when he got to the scanner the person behind him had the same tickets (STH tickets). They were told they had fake tickets and they had to buy brand new tickets from the box office and ended up with better seats. He bought the tickets from some guy that lived in Cumberland, MD too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 , I told them to turn over their tickets and scratch them with a key. If the ticket was legit, a Redskins logo would appear. Sure enough, the tickets that the STH's had showed the logo, ? What part of the back of the ticket do you scratch off? The top? Middle? Bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark The Homer Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 The logos are on the back of a legit ticket. They're about the size of a pencil eraser. If you bounce the light just right, you can see them without scratching, but scratching the back anywhere will make them easier to see. They're all over the back of any legit ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 The logos are on the back of a legit ticket. They're about the size of a pencil eraser. If you bounce the light just right, you can see them without scratching, but scratching the back anywhere will make them easier to see. They're all over the back of any legit ticket. Thanks for the clarification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFKFedEx Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 All of these fake ticket stories from one game, after years of dormancy. I think it was Dallas '07 when we last read of this problem on ES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godfather151981 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 As I said previously, I sell my tickets on ticket exchange and then get other seats (sometimes club level, sometimes up top). A pretty simple scam would be for a STH to do just that, knowing that the tickets are reissued with new bar codes as paper tickets. Then you use an upper level ticket to get in and sit in your normal seats. When the unsuspecting buyer comes, you have the tickets in your hand. Obviously the way to combat this is to get the ticket office to run the bar codes because the buyer's tickets would in theory be the only ones that are valid, however if the ticket office was willing to side with a guy that didn't have a ticket at all I'm not sure they'd be willing to go to that effort. My point in saying that is not to give crooks ideas. (And furthermore I would NEVER do that myself. I only do the buy/sell thing if I'm able to either turn a profit on the seats while buying other seats, or upgrade myself to the club level for a similar price.) But it does point out one danger of the secondary market when buying tickets. I'm not sure I'd scalp a ticket outside a sporting venue anymore because you just never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark The Homer Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 As I said previously, I sell my tickets on ticket exchange and then get other seats (sometimes club level, sometimes up top). A pretty simple scam would be for a STH to do just that, knowing that the tickets are reissued with new bar codes as paper tickets.... New bar codes? Are you sure about that? I think you might be mistaken, because a broker once told me he had accidentally sold a pair of genuine tickets after selling them as a pdf. What happened was the person with the legit ticket was denied entry because the person with the pdf entered first (you can't enter with the same ticket or the same bar code). It was an honest mistake - he should have destroyed the original when he printed the pdf (and I think that's a primary reason why most brokers won't sell legit tickets anymore, they just sell the pdfs, even if you pick them up in person). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godfather151981 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I'm pretty sure that I've seen both on Stub Hub as well as on Ticket Exchange that the original tickets are deactivated and a new bar code is issued with the new ticket. I might be wrong, but it would also stand to reason that if the bar codes are the same once the ticket has been used for entry any other ticket with that bar code would be deactivated. For the Giants game I ended up with two pair of tickets, one of which I bought on Ticket Exchange. I sold them on stub hub, and I had to enter the serial number on the bar code. It wouldn't let me sell the tickets on stub hub for less than what I had paid on ticket exchange (where I bought the second pair or tickets), which tells me that they issue a new bar code with the sale price information imbedded into it. I suppose it really doesn't matter if they issue a new bar code or not, although if they really don't that's a huge problem. I'm not dishonest enough to even consider trying to use my season tickets after selling them someplace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFKFedEx Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 IDK about changing the bar codes. Seems like it opens the door for a lot of potential problems on gamedays. But if anybody could change bar codes, IMO it would have to be TE of SH, as they're both partnered with the league or individual teams such as the Redskins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCA77 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 New bar codes? Are you sure about that? I think you might be mistaken, because a broker once told me he had accidentally sold a pair of genuine tickets after selling them as a pdf. What happened was the person with the legit ticket was denied entry because the person with the pdf entered first (you can't enter with the same ticket or the same bar code). It was an honest mistake - he should have destroyed the original when he printed the pdf (and I think that's a primary reason why most brokers won't sell legit tickets anymore, they just sell the pdfs, even if you pick them up in person). Mark, that's definitely how it's done. I've called the ticket office before when I thought I had lost my tickets and they explained it to me this way. For the Ravens game, I sold 2 tickets last minute on Stub Hub. I had to download them as a PDF after they sold, so I still have a copy of the PDF on my computer. I also still have the hard ticket since I never shipped it to the buyer. I have them both in front of me now and there are two different sets of numbers and two different barcodes as well. When I went to print my etickets/PDF tickets, it told me that it would automatically void the original ticket. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drjiveturkey Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 New bar codes? Are you sure about that? I think you might be mistaken, because a broker once told me he had accidentally sold a pair of genuine tickets after selling them as a pdf. What happened was the person with the legit ticket was denied entry because the person with the pdf entered first (you can't enter with the same ticket or the same bar code). It was an honest mistake - he should have destroyed the original when he printed the pdf (and I think that's a primary reason why most brokers won't sell legit tickets anymore, they just sell the pdfs, even if you pick them up in person). I don't know about stub hub, but when ur tickets sell on TMTE, your barcode gets deactivated and a new one is reissued to the buyer. That's why you don't have to physically mail out tickets. The buyer can just print an ETicket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB452 Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 >> When I went to print my etickets/PDF tickets, it told me that it would automatically void the original ticket. I hope this really happens or this is really ripe for abuse. This is kind of what I think was happening here or there's some "secret bar code" that the system always allows in and the scammers know what it is. BTW, for the poster who said people went through without scanning their tickets and then went through security - I have NEVER seen it done this way - You ALWAYS go through security first, then they scan your tickets....not the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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