COLCHESTER, CT (WFSB) – Concerts, fun runs, and beer crawls might be on the docket this summer, but the Better Business Bureau is warning of scams they’ve been seeing recently.
Not everything you see online is true, and that also goes for tickets being sold online.
“Well, it’s really frustrating because you know, $85 is not a lot of money, until someone just takes it from you,” said Alicia Chambers, scam victim.
You likely see the ads popping up in your social media feeds.
Nationwide people are buying tickets to what they think are real events that end up being fake.
“People are finally ready to get out. The pandemic is getting better, people want to interact, they want to socialize. There are all of these events, people are waiting to participate in,” said Kristen Johnson, Director of Communications for the Better Business Bureau.
Johnson said these scams happen so easily, but people don’t realize when things don’t quite match up.
“They’re seeing these advertisements, they’re going to the websites, they seem professional, they buy the tickets and then shortly before the event, it gets canceled and there’s no way to get in contact with the people they bought the tickets from. That’s when they realize this is a scam,” Johnson said.
That exact thing happened to Alicia Chambers.
She was planning on going to the Bubble Run in Memphis with her daughter, and after spending $82, it never ended up happening.
“The Facebook page that they had looks really cool. You’re running through bubbles, it sounds like such a fun event and it’s not happening, and it sounds like it never was going to happen,” said Chambers.
She said the website looked so real.
Johnson said scammers will copy real websites and make them their own.
“So what you want to do is not only look at the website, but look for contact information, contact the people behind these events and make sure there’s a real person there. A lot of time, these scammers are halfway across the globe,” said Johnson.
“I wish that I would have done a little more research on this event so that i would have known that it probably was not a good idea,” said Chambers.
One thing to lookout for is this: “https”.
The “s” means it’s a secure website, and you’re more likely to have protections if you pay on a secure website.
BBB Connecticut has not received any specific reports of people in Connecticut being victimized, but they know if it’s happening nationwide, it’s most likely happening here.
To report a scam to the BBB, click here.
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