Fans report having difficulty with reverse Ticketmaster transfers – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

More and more fans in North Texas are telling us about their Ticketmaster tickets going missing.

Earlier this month, our NBC 5 Responds team informed you that some consumers’ digital tickets had been transferred without authorization. Read on to learn what steps you can take to better secure your seats.

‘MY HEART BLOODED‘

When Angela Perdue contacted NBC 5 Responds, time was of the essence. The Usher tickets that Perdue had purchased months earlier were gone, and the concert began a few hours later.

“I immediately called Ticketmaster to try to sort it out,” Angela Perdue told NBC 5. “It was a struggle with them.”

Perdue said she believed the digital tickets were secure in her Ticketmaster account. Megan Clouse too.

“I thought we were safe,” Clouse said. “We purchased these pre-sale tickets through Ticketmaster.”

Clouse secured seats for Taylor Swift last year.

“It was like winning the lottery,” Clouse told us.

Clouse’s seven-year-old daughter was counting down the days until the show in New Orleans until she saw emails from Ticketmaster saying her seats had been sent to someone else.

“I logged into my Ticketmaster account and sure enough it told me they had been forwarded to a long fake email, and my heart sank,” Clouse said.

Perdue and Clouse said Ticketmaster fan support told them it would investigate. Everyone was concerned that they would not receive a response in time for their events.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SEARCH

This is what happened to Rachel Reeves. She and her husband traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, to watch the Chiefs play. Hours before the Sept. 15 game, Reeves said the tickets were transferred from his account.

“I was panicked,” Reeves said.

She said she tried calling and messaging Ticketmaster fan support and couldn’t find anyone to help her.

“We’re stepping up, we’re going to take care of your messages even an hour or two after the game ends,” Reeves told NBC 5.

But it wasn’t a loss that day. In what Reeves thought was a Hail Mary, she contacted the Chiefs fan experience team. Reeves said a representative heard his story and provided two tickets.

“She called me,” Reeves recalled. “I’m going to cry because it was so nice. I ended up telling myself that the bosses wanted to take care of us.

Reeves points out that she paid almost three hundred dollars in service fees to Ticketmaster: “They charge you an exorbitant amount of money for the fees and provide no service.” »

CONSUMERS QUESTION SAFETY

After contacting Ticketmaster, the company refunded Reeves’ service fee and restored Clouse and Perdue’s tickets, just as it did for North Texas fans in a previous story we covered.

Consumers who contacted NBC 5 Responds said the unauthorized transfers took place in September and October. Earlier this year, Ticketmaster suffered a data breach on a third-party cloud platform. He said customer passwords were not exposed.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson told NBC 5 Responds that it recommends consumers strengthen their passwords, including personal email account passwords when Ticketmaster notices security issues.

Angela Perdue said Ticketmaster should do more to identify unauthorized ticket transfers.

“I should have gotten some sort of warning before someone… stole my tickets.” I should have gotten an alert on my phone the same way I get the tickets on my phone,” Perdue said.

Clouse told us she wishes Ticketmaster offered multi-factor authentication: “Just like if I log into my email from my husband’s phone, I have so many ways to verify that it’s really me.” I get texts, emails, everything. But for that? There was nothing. »

The Ticketmaster website states that a two-factor authentication feature is enabled the first time you try to print tickets or change your email address on any device.

Since our last report, NBC 5 Responds also asked Ticketmaster, specifically, about additional security for ticket transfers and whether it could offer multi-factor authentication, an additional verification method, to log in. We have not received a response to these questions. .

SECURE ONLINE ACCOUNTS

Eva Velasquez, of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said companies should allow multi-factor authentication as an option for customers.

“Companies feel like introducing friction is bad. It’s not limited to Ticketmaster or airlines or those types of companies,” Velasquez said.

“We need to send the message to businesses that we will accept this friction. We understand that it’s important to protect ourselves and we’re not necessarily going to take our business elsewhere,” Velasquez added.

Those with a Ticketmaster account can log in and change their password. Do not use the one you have used in the past or for another online account. Follow the same steps to secure your personal email.

You can learn more from the Federal Trade Commission on creating a strong password here.

You can read the ITRC recommendations via this link.

NBC 5 Responds is committed to researching your concerns and getting your money back. Our goal is to provide you with answers and, if possible, solutions and resolution. Call us at 844-5RESPND (844-573-7763) or fill out our customer complaint form.