[00:00:04] Lisa Turner: And he was like, “That sounds kind of fishy…
I just started to have a weird sense about it, you know.
[00:00:15] Bob: Hmm, hmm.
[00:00:16] Lisa Turner: And I even told Kevin I was doing this.
Like we were still in communication.
And he was like, “Yeah, no problem.”
Like, “You’re going to find out that they’re totally legit, you know.”
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:27] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
But those screams of joy, well, they turned to tears soon after.
But first, let’s meet one very devoted mom and a very determined concertgoer.
[00:01:11] Lisa Turner: My name is Lisa Turner.
I live in Berkley, Michigan.
[00:01:14] Bob: And, and where is Berkely, Michigan?
[00:01:16] Lisa Turner: Just outside of Detroit.
[00:01:17] Bob: Is there a thing that Berkley is known for?
We’re just a small, small little community kind of surrounded by a larger one.
[00:01:36] Bob: Lisa is a self-proclaimed professional concertgoer.
[00:01:41] Lisa Turner: I mean if I had to give myself a name, yeah.
I, no, nobody has called me that.
I mean I’ve been to over a thousand concerts.
[00:02:03] Bob: You’ve been to a thousand concerts.
[00:02:04] Lisa Turner: At least, yeah.
[00:02:06] Bob: On my God, so what, what was your first concert?
[00:02:09] Lisa Turner: My first concert was Whitney Houston.
[00:02:11] Bob: That’s a pretty good first concert.
[00:02:13] Lisa Turner: Yeah.
[00:02:15] Bob: How old were you?
[00:02:16] Lisa Turner: I was probably about 8.
[00:02:19] Bob: Wow, overnight were you a concert fan then?
[00:02:22] Lisa Turner: Oh, for sure, yeah.
Live music just does something.
I just love, love being at live music events.
[00:02:40] Bob: Well what, who was that for?
[00:02:43] Lisa Turner: Who I did sleep… Sarah McLachlan.
[00:02:45] Bob: (chuckles) And, and was that just to get in line?
[00:02:48] Lisa Turner: Yeah.
[00:02:54] Lisa Turner: Well yeah, we’re probably going back to like early ’90s.
[00:03:04] Bob: What did you bring, snacks?
Did you bring a sleeping bag?
How did that work?
[00:03:25] Lisa Turner: It was.
I wish, I wish we could still do that now.
Everybody obviously was there ‘cause you liked the same act or whatnot, and you would share things.
[00:03:42] Lisa Turner: You had an opportunity to get good tickets.
So like for the Sarah McLachlan show, I got 1st or 2nd row seats.
[00:03:49] Bob: Wow.
You could call Ticketmaster and talk to somebody on the phone.
But it’s all online.
you could’t talk to anybody.
There’s no waiting, you know, if you’re first in line, it doesn’t matter.
How does that work?
I was never even thought of as a verified fan even though I purchased tickets to her previous show.
Oh, and then they would sprinkle them.
And a couple minutes later, maybe two more would appear.
I would give a shot to grab those.
“Oops, sorry, somebody else already beat you to those.”
That was for the Friday show.
The Saturday show I never even made it out of the queue.
It was absolutely insane.
[00:07:23] Lisa Turner: Yes.
[00:07:48] Bob: All right.
So two days of this go by and you, you have nothing, right?
[00:07:53] Lisa Turner: Nothing.
[00:07:54] Bob: How does that feel?
It’s about a mom wanting to make her child’s dream come true.
[00:08:20] Bob: Who were you trying to get the tickets for?
[00:08:26] Bob: Are you the big fan?
Is she the big fan?
Are you fans together?
[00:08:30] Lisa Turner: Shes the big fan.
I think she’s okay, but I was okay not going.
So this just like really, really struck me.
I was like, what is going on?
And so I asked her about it the next morning.
I said, “Oh my goodness, Molly, what, what are these pictures about?”
[00:09:29] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:09:30] Lisa Turner: Yeah, I mean it was heartbreaking.
[00:09:33] Bob: That’s enough to make a parent do anything, right?
[00:09:36] Lisa Turner: Just about.
[00:09:39] Bob: So Lisa decides to put those ticket hunting skills to work.
Remember, she’s never been unable to get tickets to a show she really wanted to see.
[00:09:48] Bob: Okay, so and you’ve done this before.
What is your strategy?
[00:09:57] Lisa Turner: It depends on how bad I want to see the show.
I’ve also used Craig’s List to buy and sell tickets.
Sometimes I have an extra ticket I can’t use, you know, whatever.
And then almost all the time, especially for these big arena shows they release tickets the day of.
And you know, that’s where my limit was, right?
Like I was not willing to spend that for my daughter to go see a show.
Now we’re, we’re not doing that.
So instead what, what’s the, what’s the, what’s the next step?
What’s the next option?
[00:11:19] Bob: And what happens there?
He had a local phone number, so I felt good about that.
So we talked on the phone.
His name was Kevin.
I could hear his toddler in the background.
We probably talked for a good 60 minutes while I purchased these tickets from him.
Like it won’t let me, it’s giving my son an error.”
He even sent me, you know, a picture of the warning pop-up.
Like these tickets are completely legit, like you’re not going to have a problem.
They’re fine.”
They discuss there’s a chance something will go wrong.
But all agree, the risk is worth $300.
And it looked very good.
And so I felt okay with sending him the first payment.
And so we went through that four times.
I purchased four tickets from him.
[00:13:47] Bob: How did you send the money to Kevin?
[00:13:49] Lisa Turner: Venmo.
Then he sent me ticket number 2; I sent him another 300.
He sent me ticket number 3; I sent him another one.
And then he sent me ticket number 4 and I sent him the last payment.
[00:14:11] Bob: Okay, got it.
[00:14:13] Lisa Turner: Yep.
You know, ‘cause he was all ready to do the second transaction with me.
I’m like, “I bought these tickets.
I opened a ticket, and nobody ever even got back to me.
[00:15:43] Bob: Hmm, hmm.
[00:15:44] Lisa Turner: And I even told Kevin I was doing this.
Like, “You’re going to find out that they’re totally legit, you know.”
[00:15:56] Bob: So Lisa drives all the way down to Ford Field.
[00:16:14] Bob: Never seen anything like these four fake tickets that looked so real.
And then they’d asked me another question and I texted him, and no reply.
And after that, he never answered the phone again.
[00:17:01] Bob: How did the girls take it?
[00:17:05] Lisa Turner: Oh, they were beyond devastated.
[00:17:36] Bob: Of course, of course.
Were the other moms understanding?
[00:17:39] Lisa Turner: Oh they totally were.
Like I’m so, so sorry that this happened, you guys.
Like I feel horrible.
And Kevin was originally asking $330 a ticket, and I had talked him down to $300.
And I just appreciated that, like, so much in that moment, right.
I mean I needed that.
WDIV TV jumps at the chance to tell the girls’ story.
I’ll get to that in a moment.
And then, then we advocate for change, you know what needs to be done to fix this.
What was that report about?
You know, and maybe buy tickets for their spouse or their kids and go see this act.
And they’re just trying to have a good time and they end up getting hurt.
[00:21:14] Bob: Most ticket scams follow a familiar pattern, Teresa says.
Send me the money through Cash App or Zelle.
Usually Cash App or something else, or even gift cards sometimes because it’s a little less traceable.
And then, then the person never sends the tickets, okay?
Or they do send something, they’re just something that someone created use–, using Photoshop.
And so people view it as like, here is my one chance.
I am going to make it happen.
Desperate people sometimes make bad decisions.
That doesn’t give them time to actually think about it.
[00:25:35] Teresa Murray: Yes.
And you know that was technology that didn’t exist all that many years ago.
And you could do that before you exchanged money.
But it’s very rare you see paper tickets these days.
And they’re just devastated.
[00:29:25] Bob: Of course Lisa Turner’s daughter and her three friends are all devastated.
I was just like; I could not even believe it.
[00:30:11] Bob: Wow.
Now, your first reaction was, this is another scam, right?
[00:30:16] Lisa Turner: I mean it was.
[00:30:19] Bob: So Lisa again contacts the groups of moms.
[00:30:23] Lisa Turner: I’m like, we might be getting tickets.
[00:30:29] Bob: Okay, how did you get the tickets?
[00:30:40] Lisa Turner: We ended up doing like a second reveal.
But they, but they got through.
Did, did they text you right away?
[00:31:10] Bob: And that’s quite a happy ending.
How was the show?
[00:31:13] Lisa Turner: Amazing.
I saw, I saw lots of videos and, and pictures.
I mean a lifetime of memories for them.
I was very grateful.
[00:31:23] Bob: Grateful.
But now this veteran concertgoer is a bit more cautious.
[00:31:45] Bob: But those fees are expensive.
[00:31:58] Lisa Turner: Well it clearly is.
I mean because the average American cannot afford $1200 a ticket to go see any concert.
[00:32:06] Bob: Lisa’s ending was even happier still.
But unfortunately, most concert ticket scam stories don’t have a happy ending like this.
So Teresa has advice for concertgoers.
[00:33:20] Bob: And Teresa stresses, sometimes the concert tickets are just unavailable.
[00:34:21] Bob: And one more piece of advice.
Before you buy, talk.
Talk to a coworker, talk to somebody from your church.
What do you think?”
Call the AARP Fraud Watch web link Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
Our email address at The Perfect Scam is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
And we want to hear from you.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
She is reassured when he offers to transfer the tickets to her viaApple Walletbefore receiving payment.
The tickets look great, and the girls are overjoyed.
