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Sophisticated scam swindles Washington mom looking for Miss USA event on Ticketmaster

A Washington mom was trying to treat her daughter to Miss USA tickets, but the experience quickly turned ugly.

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Rosemary Graham planned it out a year in advance. She would be giving her daughter and a friend the VIP treatment at the upcoming Miss USA pageant in Reno.

But then things turned ugly.

"I was just devastated," said Graham. "I couldn't believe I got taken."

In her rush to buy tickets, Graham did a Google search on her phone for Ticketmaster. 

What she got, however, was a convincing duplicate website and fake phone number. But the person on the other end of the line seemed anything but phony.

"They knew all of the details, they were answering my questions before I could ask them," said Graham. "They were telling me they were very concerned about my security and that I was on a recorded line. It was all a lie."

The scammer told Graham, for her security, she shouldn't pay with a credit card, but instead with Google Play cards.

"The reasoning was in order to protect me, they wanted me to get a card so there would be a limit and it would be the exact amount of my purchase," she said.

That amount turned out to be $2,850 — gone for good. 

Graham emailed the fraudster photos of the cards, but a closer look at the email address showed it wasn't official at all.

Ticketmaster only uses the "ticketmaster.com" domain and the company says it does not accept third-party cards as payment.

A call back to the number Graham dialed connected to a man who identified himself as Tony, a "Ticketmaster agent."

An online search of that phone number turned up no relation to Ticketmaster whatsoever.

Experts advise you to only buy tickets with a credit (not debit) card or through PayPal because those purchases are protected.

Also, when doing a Google search, make sure you're on the real Ticketmaster site. There are plenty of online outfits using slick variations of the spelling which may not be trustworthy. 

You should also use the Ticketmaster app to make purchases whenever possible to avoid getting diverted to a phony website.




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