Philly Police Launch Unit To Stop Eagles Playoff Ticket Scammers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some Eagles fans scored, but many more were shutout as NFC Championship Game tickets went on sale this morning.
A limited number of NFC title game tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and immediately, many fans took to social media to describe their shared experience, like Ben Livingston on Twitter.
"I was right on there, I used both my phone and desktop computer and attempted to get tickets, literally couldn't even get through," said Ryan, an Eagles fan.
And it's no wonder, tickets sold out in just seconds.
"Unfortunately, that's just kind of how things go," Ryan said.
But with resale ticket demand so high, Philadelphia police are warning both ticket-holders and buyers to be careful.
"Every game, we have around a 100 to 200 fraudulently used or attempted to be used tickets," said Captain Sekou, with the Philadelphia Police Departments.
Which is why Captain Kinebrew says the department launched a specialized unit to stop scammers.
"It's difficult. I know that the long-range goal for the unit I'm speaking of is to bring in as many arrests and to work their way up the food chain to see who's at the head of these types of scams," Kinebrew said.
He says selling fraudulent tickets happens in one of two ways:
- Criminals duplicating bar codes from legitimate tickets that excited fans post online on social media.
- Counterfeit tickets.
And because postseason games are more expensive, police expect this Sunday's game to bring out even more scammers.
"It's a significant problem and it's a shame because the person that, the victim of the scam, there's very little redress that's available to them other than possibly when it goes to the criminal justice system if there's some form of restitution," said Kinebrew.
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If you missed out on tickets, you didn't miss your chance to go to the game, but the prices are up there. People are reselling them on several websites like StubHub. The prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
And if you're really looking to be a big spender, on the NFL Ticket Exchange run by Ticketmaster, tickets to a suite at the Linc, food and drinks included, cost $10,000.
