Ticketmaster customers in Montreal sound alarm after online tickets vanish

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Peggy

Myriam Estrella was excited to take her partner to a Montreal Canadiens game in her hometown on Tuesday night. But when she checked her account, her tickets were gone.

The tickets had been claimed by someone else — an account she didn’t recognize.

Estrella, who now lives in Florida, complained to Ticketmaster for help, but says nothing happened until she started voicing concerns on her popular TikTok account.

“I was at a very, very privileged point to be able to have a million people see that story and say, ‘Wow, this is not right,'” she told CBC News on Thursday.

“Not every single person has a million people to be able to hold a company accountable.”

She was able to get into the game, but she said it seemed like it was an effort by the company to save face. She said it left her feeling like the company doesn’t care about a larger issue — tickets being stolen from its accounts.

Ticketmaster’s TikTok account commented on her videos, saying the tickets had been restored. But Estrella isn’t the only Ticketmaster customer to buy tickets only to see them disappear.

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While tickets have disappeared from some event-goers’ Ticketmaster accounts, and the company has reported data breaches, Ticketmaster says theft and fraud is still less of a problem than the days of paper tickets.

“I was angry, but sad not only for me, who fought like crazy for the week, but also my friends — knowing they trusted me. I kind of failed them,” said Fredericke Lapierre, recounting her own experience of fighting the ticket giant over missing concert tickets.

Lapierre and her friends still went to the show, but they had to get new seats, costing hundreds more.

“What is sad is that I’m scared of buying tickets now on Ticketmaster,” said Lapierre.

Ticketmaster data breach connected, expert says

In July, Ticketmaster sent an email to customers saying there had been a data breach first identified in May. At the time, it said the stolen data may have included credit card and contact information.

Ticketmaster said this week that passwords weren’t exposed in the breach, and CBC News was unable to confirm a link between the breach and missing tickets.

Logos for Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster. — Tickets to many large events in Canada must be purchased via Ticketmaster, which is owned by entertainment giant Live Nation. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

However, technology columnist Carmi Levy says there is a connection. He said fraudsters can match data from the breach, such as email addresses, with previously leaked passwords to see which accounts they can access.

“[They] try to sign in to various accounts, including Ticketmaster. Once they sign in, it’s like they are signing in as the owner of this account,” explained Levy.

“Then they’re able to use that access to sell whatever tickets are in that account, pretending to be the legitimate owner of that account.”

He said this is a common problem that persists for months, if not years, after a data breach. He noted these scams are happening more frequently, and people should be more prepared.

man — Carmi Levy, a tech analyst, says data breaches can lead to online thefts and fraud like this for months or years after. (Submitted by Carmi Levy)

The trick, he said, is to go into your Ticketmaster account and, firstly, change the password. Then, add two-step verification and use encrypted password managers to keep accounts more secure and reduce the risk of data theft.

“Stop using the same passwords across all of these different accounts,” said Levy. “That makes it incredibly easy. You’re essentially giving the master key to cyber criminals once they break into one.”

Ticketmaster says technology improving

As for Estrella, she said she still doesn’t know how the tickets were stolen. She said Ticketmaster told her the theft was connected to her personal email account, but she said she regularly uses new email addresses.

Ticketmaster says its online 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,” the statement says.

“The top way fans can protect themselves is by 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, Ticketmaster said in its statement, adding it is “constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”