An Ontario mother is warning others not to search for Ticketmaster contact information in Google after she was scammed out of about $600.
It was supposed to be the ultimate Christmas gift for her son–a pair of tickets to a Travis Scott concert at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
But the day before the concert, the tickets disappeared from her Ticketmaster app. As it was crunch time, Traci Mendez decided she wanted to speak with a representative over the phone. She said she then typed in “Ticketmaster Canada contact phone number” into the search engine and called a number at the top of the list.
“It’s just your natural answer to everything,” the Whitby, Ont. resident told CTV News Toronto. “Who doesn’t go to Google?”
According to Mendez, an individual who identified himself as “James from Ticketmaster” answered her call. He told her there was a system-wide glitch that led to her tickets being removed from her profile.
They would have to initiate a refund and then they can re-issue her tickets, the fake agent said. However, they could not provide a refund for a credit card over the phone.
Instead, Mendez was told to go out and get $600 worth of Ticketmaster or Apple gift cards. They would then refund her for the tickets, repurchase them–and the tickets would then appear in her Apple wallet.
For her troubles, the fraudster told her she would get a drink voucher along with a discount on the new tickets. Mendez was given a reference number and an extension number to call back once the gift cards had been obtained. Everything went according to plan–until the morning of the concert when she realized the tickets were still missing.
When Mendez tried to call James back, she said she was met with an automatic message saying: “You’ve reached Ticketmaster. All their lines are currently busy, please hold.” Another time she called she reached an individual who said she would transfer her to James, but she was disconnected.
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With time ticking until the concert that night, the easiest solution Mendez could think of was purchasing a second pair of floor tickets for her son, costing her thousands of dollars.
CTV News Toronto tried to call the number (1-(833)-239-0549) and reached “Jason from Paypal.” When asked about whether this number was for Ticketmaster, the self-proclaimed agent said no. When asked to be transferred to Paypal’s media or communications team–we were told that someone from Ticketmaster would be reaching out shortly.
After multiple other attempts at reaching the individual, it appears as though CTV News Toronto’s phone number was blocked. Paypal has confirmed this number is not associated with its business.
“I’m an educated individual, so if I call a customer service phone number I googled online and I get a recording for the company, dial an extension, why would I believe I’m getting something other than the person representing the company,” Mendez said. “It leaves me dumbfounded. There’s really no other word for it.”
“It leaves you doubting, even now, a phone number you call into.”
Ticketmaster did refund Mendez for the first pair of tickets after noting she had duplications in her account, something she is thankful for. However, she still has to reckon with the loss of $600 worth of gift cards.
“As a PSA to other fans: scammers often run ads on search sites with fake phone numbers to confuse consumers,” a spokesperson for Ticketmaster said in a statement. “Our real contact info can be found directly within our app or on our website.”
The ticketing agency said they will never ask a customer to purchase a gift card.
It’s still unclear why Mendez’s tickets disappeared from her Ticketmaster app to begin with. She says Taylor Swift tickets she purchased for her daughter are also not showing up–but that’s another day’s problem.