INDIANAPOLIS — As more big events come to the Circle City, ticket scams can become a lot more common. That includes Taylor Swift’s Era Tour in just a couple of months, the Big Ten Football Championship in December and WWE’s Royal Rumble in February.
One of the problems people may find when purchasing a ticket to their next big event is resellers offering what’s called speculative tickets.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) describes speculative ticketing as misleading to buyers because some sites will try to sell you tickets before they even have them.
“Certainly it’s frowned upon because there is no guarantee they are going to get it and it can be misleading to people who are actually trying to get those tickets,” said Jennifer Adamany, the director of communication with the Better Business Bureau.
For example, a big event that many wrestling fans are looking forward to is WWE’s Royal Rumble making its Indianapolis debut next winter. On the WWE website, there is presale access where you can place deposits down for floor and bowl seating but secondary sellers like StubHub already have the tickets available for sale where fans can pay up to $13,000 for one ticket.
“I think one of the indicators you want to look for is if it tells you the row and the section but it doesn’t give you the exact seat number,” Adamany said. “I would be a little wary about that because it could be a sign that it’s speculative ticketing. You want to be able to know exactly where those seats are.”
FOX59/CBS4 reached out to StubHub about tickets for this specific event but have not yet heard back.
In general, the BBB said it’s important to keep your guard up no matter who you are purchasing tickets from and when you do make sure you are always using a credit card because they generally offer more protection.
“Don’t ever pay by any means when it’s basically impossible to get your money back so that’s going to be peer-to-peer payment apps. That’s going to be cryptocurrency, wiring money or gift cards because scammers love those forms of payment because of the fact you can’t get that money back,” Adamany said.
For anyone who believes they are being scammed, make sure to report it. This can be done on the BBB Scam Tracker which can be found here.
“The more that we know that it’s prevalent, the more we can get the word out there so others don’t fall for it,” Adamany said.
