For years, Greensboro resident Rebecca Cornwell has made the
\nhour-and-15-minute drive to Raleigh to cheer on the Carolina Hurricanes. During
\nthe regular season, she attends games whenever she can. During the playoffs,
\nshe’s made it a point to see at least one game in every round.<\/p>\n
When the Hurricanes clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup
\nFinal, Cornwell hoped to continue that tradition by attending Game 1 at Lenovo
\nCenter.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Canes fans take warning on higher ticket prices for Stanley Cup Final<\/a><\/p>\n Like thousands of other fans, she logged on over the weekend “I was about 7,000th in line,” Cornwell told WRAL Unwilling to spend that much money, Cornwell decided not to Almost immediately, she began second-guessing that decision.<\/p>\n When she checked resale sites, she found prices had climbed “Everything I saw on the resale market was at least The Facebook group that seemed legitimate<\/p>\n Determined to find a more affordable option, Cornwell turned The group appeared legitimate. With more than 10,000 Cornwell says she connected with the group’s administrator, Promises, delays and disappearing accounts<\/p>\n According to Cornwell, Stamper explained that she would act At 11:37 a.m. Sunday, Cornwell sent $1,000.<\/p>\n She expected the tickets to arrive shortly afterward.<\/p>\n Instead, hours passed.<\/p>\n Around 2 p.m., Cornwell messaged Stamper, telling her she Cornwell says Stamper blamed the delay on the seller and They never did.<\/p>\n The following day, Cornwell says Stamper’s Facebook account A trail of complaints<\/p>\n The Facebook group remains active but now appears to be As she searched online for answers, Cornwell says she Now out $1,000 and without tickets, Cornwell says she’s Warning other Hurricanes fans<\/p>\n “If speaking out keeps someone else from losing money, Cornwell has filed complaints with the Better Business WRAL has reached out to Stamper for comment and is awaiting Consumer advice from the BBB on how toa void ticket scams:<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0Avoid \u00b7\u00a0Buy \u00b7\u00a0 Research \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Look \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0Call
\nand joined the online queue for tickets.<\/p>\n
\nNews. “By the time I got in, there were very few tickets left, and the
\nseats that were available were at least $650.”<\/p>\n
\nbuy.<\/p>\n
\neven higher.<\/p>\n
\n$1,000,” she said.<\/p>\n
\nto a Facebook group called “Carolina Hurricanes Verified Tickets
\nExchange.”<\/p>\n
\nmembers, it even featured posts offering advice on how fans could avoid being
\nscammed while purchasing tickets.<\/p>\n
\nSandy Stamper, who told her a “verified seller” was offering two
\ntickets to Game 1 for $500 each.<\/p>\n
\nas a middleman. Cornwell would send the money to Stamper, who would then obtain
\nthe tickets from the seller through Ticketmaster. Once the tickets were
\ntransferred, Stamper would send them to Cornwell and forward the payment to the
\nseller.<\/p>\n
\nwas growing concerned.<\/p>\n
\nreassured her that the tickets would arrive soon.<\/p>\n
\nhad disappeared.<\/p>\n
\noperated by a different administrator.<\/p>\n
\ndiscovered numerous complaints involving Stamper and alleged ticket scams. In
\none case, a person reported losing $3,600.<\/p>\n
\nsharing her story in hopes of preventing other Hurricanes fans from becoming
\nvictims.<\/p>\n
\nit’s worth it,” she said.<\/p>\n
\nBureau, Facebook and the North Carolina Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
\na response.<\/p>\n
\nScammers.\u00a0A large portion of ticket scams come from social media
\nresellers. These can be individuals leaving comments on posts, online
\nmarketplace sellers or people sharing fraudulent tickets to their personal
\nfeed. A big tell tale sign of this scam is a screenshotted ticket. Actual live
\ntickets (which have constantly changing barcodes or qr codes) will be accepted
\nat the games and are able to be directly downloaded to your mobile device.<\/p>\n
\nfrom reputable vendors.\u00a0Both teams are operating their ticket sales
\nthrough their\u00a0team
\nwebsites<\/a>\u00a0linked to Ticketmaster. You may also find tickets through
\nthe arenas hosting each game. When going through a secondary seller, only buy
\nfrom vendors you know and trust. Look for the lock symbol in the web address to
\nindicate a secure purchasing system. Don\u2019t click through from emails or online
\nads; a common ticket scam trick is to\u00a0create
\na web address that is similar to a well-known company<\/a>. Check to see if
\nthey are a member of the\u00a0National
\nAssociation of Ticket Brokers<\/a>. NATB members offer a 200% purchase
\nguarantee on tickets. Look up the seller on\u00a0VerifiedTicketSource.com<\/a>\u00a0to
\nconfirm you are buying from a NATB-member resale company.<\/p>\n
\nthe seller.\u00a0If you decide to purchase from a third party seller,\u00a0evaluate<\/a>\u00a0their
\nwebsite; look for any design or grammatical errors on the page or domain. See
\nif the seller is an accredited business on\u00a0bbb.org<\/a>\u00a0or
\nif the BBB\u2019s seal is on their site.\u00a0Check<\/a>\u00a0if
\nthey are a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers where tickets
\ncome with a guarantee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nover policies.\u00a0Find out how the company prevents fraud and how they
\nmay help if it occurs. Gain understanding of how ticket transfers and returns
\nwork.<\/p>\n
\ncustomer service.\u00a0Before you go to the event, call the venue to check
\nif your ticket is valid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Greensboro resident Rebecca Cornwell has made the hour-and-15-minute drive to Raleigh to cheer on the Carolina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[78315,4821,5457,78264,99],"class_list":["post-680184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-5-on-your-side","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-consumer","tag-scams","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}