Don’t Be Fooled By Fake World Series Tickets

For one Red Sox fan, trying to get to Fenway Park to see Game Six of the World Series turned into a “very expensive life lesson.”

John, who didn’t want to use his last name, says a Craigslist-poster, who claimed he had a pair of tickets to see the Red Sox take on the Cardinals for $1,000, scammed him.

“Right off the bat it seemed too good to be true,” says John. “It sucks. I’m less mad about the money, and more mad that I’m not getting to go to the game. It was the whole reason I decided to spend that money, potentially to see them clinch [the World Series]. I’m definitely bumming a little bit.”

John scraped together $1,000 for the pair of seats Tuesday night, headed to a busy area near the Prudential Center, and made the exchange. He says the scammer’s story seemed legitimate, and that he had procured the tickets from his father-in-law, who allegedly worked for J.P. Morgan. “He said he had two young kids, and couldn’t get to the game,” says John.

After meeting the seller, and inspecting the tickets, as well as getting a photo of the man’s license and debit card for verification, John went ahead and bought them. “They looked very real,” he admits, adding that he brought a friend along to scope them out. “Even before I agreed to meet with the guy I had a bad vibe, but for some reason—and I usually back out of stuff like that when I get a bad feeling—I don’t know why, I was delusional. I got caught up in the excitement, I guess.”

Boston Police have been warning fans not to turn to secondary sources for World Series tickets over the last few days. “Fans who purchase tickets from a secondary source are taking a chance. We would like to encourage fans to only buy tickets from authorized ticket agencies. Purchasing from other sources is done at the buyer’s risk. Officers want to proactively curb such activity and encourage buyers to only purchase from official vendors,” they said in a statement.

But John decided to test his luck. It wasn’t until he got home, however, that he noticed some small typos in places on the tickets. Worried, he called a friend that works for a ticket-selling agency, who ran the barcode for him. That’s when it sunk in—he wouldn’t be catching the game in Boston.

John says after realizing he was scammed, he wanted to make sure other people didn’t fall for a similar trick, so he turned to Reddit to post about his bad experience. Warning other Red Sox fans, he shared the photo of the man he had purchased the fake World Series tickets from, as well as a photo of the tickets. “I trust people too much, and it just bit me in the ass. Hopefully someone will read this and pass up on something similar,” he says. “I’m not looking for sympathy, I’m just trying to make sure no one else gets scammed. I just want to get it out there.”

John says he will likely just stay home for Game Six, and watch it on TV, feeling defeated by the fact that he lost out on $1,000, and a potentially historic game. “I’m grateful that I found out they were fake ahead of time, instead of at Fenway. It would have been even more depressing at the gate,” he says.