In the wake of a man charged with scamming victims out of money, The Ohio State University warns fans – buyer beware.
“You have to be careful when buying a ticket,” said OSU assistant director for ticketing Brett Scarbrough. “Your best bet is to always buy from a licensed vendor."
He says every home game dozens and many times hundreds of adults and upset children come to the ticket office emotional because they were duped.
"Sometimes its parents with little kids and they get very emotional. It's not a fun part of what we do," said Scarbrough.
Take a look at two tickets. One is bogus. Can you spot it?
The similarities are separated by the font size and style of the hologram. The lower ticket is a fraud.
OSU Ticket Officials give some helpful tips:
- Look for holographic strip… but remember even that can be duplicated.
- OSU has a ticket exchange that works like Dream Seats and Stub Hub. Ticket holders who can no longer attend the game post tickets and their requested price. The difference from other sites is tickets bought here are guaranteed to get you in the gate.
- The university says the games you're most likely to come across bogus tickets are night games and the Michigan game.
- (During one game they can see between 300-500+ fake tickets)
Brian Kaufman, owner of Dream Seats warns people of other sellers on street corners and websites like Craigslist. His company does secondary ticket sales, but he says they protect buyers.
"The advantage of coming to us, we know all of our sources. We verify our season ticket holders and we know where every single ticket came from," said Kaufman.
Kaufman held up a pair of authentic OSU football tickets and explained he had already sold the tickets and emailed the barcode information to the buyer.
He said the problem is, the paper copy ticket still exists and other businesses or people could take advantage of that. If it were resold the purchasing person would not know the barcodes on the paper tickets are no longer active.
"It's frustrating that there are people out there doing that sort of thing," said Kaufman. "The con man's best asset is your emotion. You're a buckeye fan and you want to go to the game and you want to get a good deal. Remember, if the price seems too good to be true, it is."
Columbus Police say a man previously linked to a felony ticket scam involving Ohio State football tickets is up to his old tricks. 66-year-old Martin Alper was arrested again this week after police say he tried to sell a woman tickets he did not have on High Street.
Investigators say Alper told a woman he had tickets to the OSU vs. Michigan game that he would sell to her for $100. He told her that if she gave him $20 at that time, they could meet up later to get the tickets. He also told the woman his name was Mark Dinardo.
The woman called police when Alper failed to show up to several meetings the two planned after the initial cash exchange. A warrant was filed for Alper this week. Police arrested him at his home on Monday.
Records show Alper was arrested back in 2007 for similar felony ticket scams. Investigators are trying to figure out if there are additional victims linked to his latest alleged scam.
Stay with 10TV and 10TV.com for the latest developments.