Consumer Alert To Klein Memorial Patrons – Beware Of Illegal Ticketing Platforms, How It Works

We’re alerting all ticket buyers about a misleading practice that could potentially harm you, The Klein, and any other venue that sells tickets online:

A handful of unauthorized websites can deceive patrons into thinking they’re purchasing on our site but are not. A patron recently purchased a ticket that had a face value of $24.00 on a site she thought was The Klein’s. Instead, it was a site called Tickets-Center.com, and they charged her $109.00 for her seat. A few minutes later a purchase of $24.00 was made on our box office platform for that same seat under a fake patron name at an address in another state. We recognized that address and uncovered that 22 ticket orders for a total of 44 tickets had been purchased over the past 3 months, all at the same mailing address but with different patron names. I met with the patrons who purchased tickets to one recent event, and all thought they had purchased through The Klein’s website and believed the prices they paid were the actual prices we were charging. WHILE RE-SELLING TICKETS MAY BE LEGAL, THE REPORTING OF FAKE NAMES AND OVERCHARGING MOVES CLOSER TO FRAUD. Here’s how it works:

Unaffiliated ticketing platforms pay for ads on Google, Yahoo and other servers to lure customers looking to purchase tickets to a particular event. Because they are paid ads, the links to these sites get preferential placement on the Google and Yahoo pages. You might have to scroll through at least 5 entries to reach the legitimate link to our box office. We will never endorse one of these sites to help us sell tickets. We don’t need them, and their prices for seats are inflated. These are self-proclaimed “re-ticketing agents”, which means they buy and resell tickets. In this case the patron who wanted a $24 seat was overcharged by $85.00. A preliminary search revealed that our top-priced tickets of $59 were selling on these sites for as much as $212.00. This is not typical scalping, where someone purchases a block of tickets and later resells them. In this case, they only buy the ticket if a patron visits their site and pre-pays them. They take that patron’s money and subsequently purchase tickets on our website at face value, thus pocketing their profits under fake names. If there were a sudden cancellation of an event, we’d have no way of informing the patron.

Here’s what you can do: ALWAYS double check that the ticketing platform you visit is the legitimate one for The Klein, or any other venue you wish to attend. Our website is: www.theklein.org

That address should always appear in your browser. It is entirely safe and will take you to our ticketing platform, tix.com. If you don’t see that address appear in your browser as you seek to purchase, log off.

If you see “Sponsored ad” on the Google page, don’t click onto that link and don’t visit that site. To purchase tickets, you also have the options of visiting our box office during weekdays or calling 1-800-424-0160. Our box office manager is here 6 hours each day to take orders. If you have proof that you’ve been a victim of this type of scam let us know at info@theklein.org and we’ll add your complaint to our report to the government agencies investigating this for us.

Thank you for your attention to this vital matter. We highly value your patronage and trust in us. It’s with much appreciation that we anticipate welcoming you to future events at The Klein!