JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Imagine spending over $4,000 on front-row tickets to concerts and college football games, only to miss the events because you were victimized by cyber thieves.
This is the frustrating situation a local nurse practitioner is now facing.
On May 31, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, revealed in an 8-K filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that about a week and a half earlier, it had discovered unauthorized activity regarding Ticketmaster data. A public company files an 8-K when an unexpected major event occurs of interest to shareholders and investors, according to AARP.
Jim Whited, a Nurse Practitioner in Jacksonville, told News4JAX that Ticketmaster still hasn’t made his situation right, and said almost three months after the theft, he’s still been unable to reach a human in Ticketmaster’s fraud department.
″They wound up with my front-row tickets to see Alanis Morrisette, my front-row tickets to see Jewel and Melissa Etheridge, and my front-row tickets to see Jason Aldean in Georgia with VIP meet and greets,” Jim Whited, a Ticketmaster customer, said. “They wound up with my Alabama tickets, which are coming up on November the fifth.”
And on top of all that, Jim Whited told the News4JAX ITEAM that cyber thieves purchased Jacksonville Jaguars tickets and tickets to a Nicki Minaj concert after changing his sign-in credentials on Ticketmaster’s website. Whited said the thefts happened in August, and he still hasn’t had a conversation with a Ticketmaster employee.
Related: Live Nation reveals data breach at its Ticketmaster subsidiary
″I have called Ticketmaster 100 times,” Whited said. “I stayed on hold on three different occasions for over four hours. Now, mind you, every time I talk to someone, they tell me we’re going to get back to you. Somebody from the fraud department’s going to call you.”
Instead, Whited said he’s been communicating with Ticketmaster’s AI assistant. He shared his frustrating text exchange with the News4JAX ITEAM.
Ticketmaster Fan Support wrote: “Hi Jim, In order to best assist you, please select one of the options below, or click “Go Back” for additional topics.”
Whited wrote: “My account was hacked, and all my tickets were stolen.”
Ticketmaster Fan Support replied: “In order to best assist you, please select one of the options below or click go back. What can I help you with?”
Whited responded: “I have been saying this for months and no one is helping me. My account was hacked in your data breach, and all my tickets were taken from me.”
With no response, Whited said he felt violated by Ticketmaster.
“I think that you need to make this right,” Whited said. “I missed out on meeting Jewel. I missed out on meeting Jason Aldean. I missed out on sitting front row to see Alanis Morissette. I’m going to miss out on front-row tickets to Alabama coming up, and you gotta do better. You’re the largest monopolizing company when it comes to tickets, but you don’t treat your customers with the same respect that you want to be treated as the leader in the industry. It’s despicable.”
We reached out to Ticketmaster and provided them with all the information we published in this story, and we received the reply stated below.
Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets in nearly every case. The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate. Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.
Ticketmaster Spokesperson
Ticketmaster told News4JAX that Ticketmaster passwords were not exposed in the data incident earlier this year and that what they are seeing is scammers accessing a fan’s email account.
Whited said he still has not heard back.
Another woman in Northeast Florida also reached out to News4JAX after she experienced a similar issue.
Lisa Ann said she was part of this Ticketmaster data breach. She said she purchased over $1,400 worth of concert tickets to attend a Morgan Wallen concert in Tampa, but when she went to check her tickets, they had been transferred to someone else. Also frustrated, Ann had to work hard to get back what she lost.
“I was able to contact the Better Business Bureau and get my refund back,” Lisa Ann said. “I ended up having to buy new tickets.”
Ticketmaster confirmed with USA Today that fans who had concert tickets disappear from their account were victims of hackers.
“What we’re seeing is scammers accessing a fan’s email account,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson told USA TODAY.
If you suspect fraud on your Ticketmaster or Live Nation account, Ticketmaster said to contact them here.