Scammy Scam First Draft

 
Never Send Money To Strangers / The Sad Saga Of Kyle Branum and 100 fake Nickelback tickets


TL/DR = Don't send money to strangers for tickets! Could have also titled it the Kenya Scam Mafia. 

This is an opinion piece. And that opinion with some supporting material is never send money to strangers for tickets. Until a real journalist gets involved and gets quotable material from executives at Reddit and Meta this will have to suffice. I do not consider myself a writer or reporter by any means. I probably should have worked a little more on this but felt an urgency to publish immediately. Even if you don't read I strongly urge you to not use social media to buy or sell tickets. 

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On August 12, 2009 at DTE Energy Music Center in Clarkston, MI just outside Detroit, at least a hundred Nickelback fans received a deep shock when the benign blip of the ticket scanner signaling permission to enter instead screamed out with a red flash letting everyone within hearing distance know their ticket is invalid. Anticipation turned to disappointment and anger but they were able to easily identify the culprit as Troy, MI resident Kyle Branum.

They bought the tickets off Craigslist, which once had a thriving market for buyers and sellers of tickets but also notorious for the ease in which it allowed scams, fraud, prostitution and sometimes even murder. There were so many victims that police got involved. As the Oakland County Sherriffs deputies closed in, he hanged himself.

Little is know about the life and motivation of Branum. Did he set out to scam dozens of fans or did the phone keep ringing after he sold his pair and the temptation to keep taking the money and printing off tickets grow too strong? In the early days of printouts I would see a single party of multiple people try to gain entry on a single ticket, unaware of the unique barcode scanning technology involved. The little bit of information I was able to gather implies the latter. Suicide suggests fear of consequences and deep shame that one simply cannot live with. 

In 2010, Alyssha Caldera was arrested for selling approximately 15 invalid tickets for a Rush concert in California on Craigslist. She was already on probation with a 4 year suspended sentence for 5 counts of grand theft for unspecified offenses. Her probation was revoked and she was sent to prison. 

Not only did this not deter future scams or give pause to aspiring scammers, it went completely unreported. And your typical criminal feels no shame. It's all about the quick and easy buck with as little sweat equity as possible. But once upon a time, scammers, if caught, faced charges and operated at risk of imprisonment. Now they are just as likely to based overseas and the way social media platforms operate, they can just block the victim or change user names and continue grifting. Concerts have never been more popular and with a nearly limitless amount of events the pool of possible marks is very deep. 
  
Selling bogus printouts in the parking lot and online or even a barcode error that can be fixed with a quick trip to the box office was not uncommon in the roughly 2 decade period print at home PDF's were the industry standard. Craigslist sellers, secondary marketplaces and invalid tickets became the bane of box offices everywhere. However the kind of widespread fraud we see now is facilitated by a global marketplace, digital only tickets existence of which can be stolen or faked, unprecedented demand and fast but insecure payment apps that scammers insist upon for payment. 

This is what digital tickets were supposed to protect against. Printing off and selling duplicates of the same tickets. The ticketing companies promised a safer experience when forcing us into digital phone app based ticketing, often with issues of their own such as when the venue wifi or local cell phone infrastructure would get overloaded by thousands of people connecting at once with scanning devices on the same system. Or the bottlenecks that pile up when people go thru the metal detectors and then struggle to pull their tickets back up.

Instead the scams have proliferated to every corner of the globe, and from the biggest stadium events to the bar that holds 300 people with demand for 305. Scammers and their marks find each other via the same algorithms. People naively post on Reddit or other platforms "Who has tickets?" and even more ridiculously, "Resale tickets too expensive, someone sell to me for cheaper" which is a siren call for scammers the world over. 

In 2016 I turned to Facebook in an attempt to sell distressed inventory. Tickets that weren't moving on the marketplaces so I had to hustle for customers. Instead I found accusations and recriminations from countless scam victims right alongside sketchy profiles also selling tickets. With a bit of research they all seemed to be also originate in the spiritual home of the original mail order scams, Nigeria. Soon I was able to identify these quickly as the terminology and language style they used was often a dead giveaway. Sure didn't help me sell my tickets though. 

Now they are also on Ticktok, X, Instagram and especially Reddit. I have been following ticket buying and selling on Reddit for awhile. First from posting tickets wanted ads and getting more messages in my inbox than venue capacity but then seeing more accusations of scamming, right alongside the same scammers arranging sales of the same tickets. Often they use phrases that seem really out of place in American spoken English. Of course most refuse to take payment that offers purchase protection, but some do. This means they have the tools in place to counter any chargebacks, or they are able to successfully insert themselves between legitimate buyers and sellers only to intercept the ticket or payment.  

However these aren't just random opportunists looking for an easy buck, but organized crime based in the east African nation of Kenya. They all follow a familiar pattern. They either post tickets for high profile events or even low profile but still sold out  They use algorithms or simple search terms to find people in need of tickets. Often a simple reply of "DM me" lures their target in. 

They rotate accounts to avoid getting sanctioned for spamming. The first posts are memes and cat pictures to harvest "Karma," Reddit's own system of assigning popularity. They award and upvote each other's posts and report and downvote posts that warn other users of their grift. They contact legitimate sellers and ask for proof of tickets then use that to scam victims. They immediately block anyone who raises suspicion. They buy old Reddit accounts with high karma which add an additional layer of both trust and protection from Reddit's algorithmic sanctioning of bad behavior. They network in r / sharpboys, for Kenyans taking part in the 21st century digital economy and post pictures of fancy restaurant food in r / KenyanMeals.

There are similar networks operating in Nigeria and I wouldn't be surprised if tickets play a part in raising funds for cash starved North Korea.

Just post a Tickets Wanted ad and look at the metrics Reddit conveniently provides, you will see a large percentage of views come from Nigeria and Kenya. Then ask yourself, why would someone in Kenya be interested in the fact you are looking for a discount ticket to see Insane Clown Posse? 

Some subreddits are run entirely as scam operations. R / tickets fits the bill. This subreddit is a high traffic clearing house for all posts buying and selling tickets. The rotating cast of scammers is posting over and over again regardless of any reporting with moderators suspiciously traced to the third world. 

A sleepy subreddit by a band on the fringes of popularity may suddenly sell out a club gig and you can the scams play out up close in real time as the scammers circle like vultures. The majority of posts now are people looking for tickets, selling tickets and warning other users they were just scammed, warnings which often go unheeded. Usually there is just one moderator checking in every few days. They become swamped and often treat scam warnings as more noise to be muted than an issue to be taken seriously. 

Even legitimate moderators of band based subreddits don't want the hassle of policing ticket sales and will often treat scam warning posts as more spam among all the buying and selling posts. Or there may be one moderator and low activity until the band sells out a show then all the tickets wanted posts begin with scammers circling like vultures looking for the easy marks. Some subreddits have devolved to tickets wanted, selling tickets and scam warning posts drowning out regular discussion of the band's music. 

While I was most fascinated that it was an actual organized crime ring, there are plenty of independent operators. A lot seem to be gamers and online gamblers who realize they don't even have to get up and go to work to fund their habit. But also anyone in a bind for some quick cash knows Redditors looking for tickets is an easy way to get free money. Even high karma, 10 year old accounts and past successful sales do not guarantee safety. If you decide you no longer want to be terminally online you can sell your Reddit account and it's years of accumulated history and good will, and the buyer is usually a scammer. 

And sellers are not immune. Multiple members of the BTS subreddit are reporting being tricked out of their tickets. I attempted to sell an Iron Maiden ticket via Reddit even advertising I will write a rock solid Paypal invoice. Someone expressed interest asked for my email which I gave it, though it set my alarm bells rinign. Got a Paypal Goods & Service payment, then a private message asking me to transfer the ticket to a different email address. Nope. Hit refund and did some digging and turns out that user has scammed other people out of their tickets. 

When I warn against sending money to strangers I see the mantra of Paypal Goods & Services mentioned over and over but if they always side with the customer, not sure I would feel safe accepting it, especially when this is often the payment method used when people get scammed out of their tickets. And victims are reporting their disputes being denied. 

Most Facebook ticket groups are run entirely as scam operations. A moderator is not a benevolent authority figure but the ringleader of stealing tickets and scamming users by steering them to "approved sellers," and when the grift is complete, the victim is banned from the group and blocked from viewing the offending profiles. Facebook rejects any attempts to report these groups. 

I figured out the patterns quickly and participated in some scam busting activities but there is just too much for one person to keep up with and I had to snooze entire categories of the highest demand events such as World Cup, BTS, various EDM festivals and College Graduations. Just those alone would require full time around the clock effort. Yes, they seek out people who need extra tickets to their graduations. Going rate? $25 unless the ticket seeker is offering to pay more.

You can say any victim displays a level of naivety suggesting they are at fault for sending their money off to random person off the itnernet. Indeed most victims aren't even aware there are scams involved until it happens to them. Or they think they are too savvy only to learn there are a few new tricks employed since the last time they tried to buy tickets off social media. But online scams overall are growing more sophisticated and pervasive so none of us are truly safe. 

For many it can be a traumatic experience. In just the past few weeks I have seen a few heartbreaking tales.

A young girl was scammed out of her last $60 because she wanted to take her sister to a concert for her birthday by a Kenyan who is otherwise posting her take on national politics, looking for local tutoring work and posting pictures of fancy restaurant meals. Those posts are hidden but can easily be found thru a backdoor Reddit archiver and also just via Google. I've seen scammers preying on the disabled looking for ADA concert seating or a woman who wants to see her goddaughter graduate. But I have to be careful busting any possible sellers as many college graduates need the money or just don't have anyone to see them graduate so they sell their allotted tickets. 

There are varying degrees of pain they inflict on their victims. The nice ones take your money and ghost you. The cruel ones let you drive down, pay for parking and walk right to the door with your family only to be turned away and told "this happens all the time."

I identify at least a few victims an hour but most scams likely go unreported. There is no way for me to get an accurate accounting. Scammers try to get as close to market value as possible with perhaps a little discounting as not to appear too unrealistic. I would take a wild guess and put annual losses in the low millions at the very least. Money that can go to the acts and other invested parties  or even legitimate resellers if not different entertainment options since the desired event is usually sold out.

My own attempts to warn users puts my Reddit profile at risk of spam and harassment reports. The scammers can gang up to downvote and report. Power hungry moderators see any outside attempts at protecting users as usurping their authority. I was banned from r / calpoly for making a post warning of a scammer in their midst. The scammer had already blocked me from replying directly. The messages from the moderator and one other user were borderline abusive. A moderator who is no longer a student but is still highly involved in the subreddit. Is that was a Cal Poly degree qualifies you for? A quick search shows many victims around graduation time going back several years so it's open season for scammers on that subreddit with almost zero chance of intervention. 

I have communicated with other scam busters. But there aren't many of us. One wrote an AI model that scans Reddit and identifies possible scammers much faster than we can do manually. Which begs the question, why can't Reddit or other platforms where scammers operate do this? They have access to private messages which are not really private as the contents are already scanned for targeted advertising purposes. Identifying and nuking scammers and warning users against transacting shouldn't be too difficult for companies valued in the billions who pioneered the technology that brings Kenya and California so close together. Even if a rare legitimate seller is blocked by the algorithm, there is no right to use these platforms to conduct business. But anecdotal evidence suggests Reddit has no interest in protecting users from anything other than being offended or faced with unpopular opinions. 

I am currently not employed. I am terminally online at my desk all day. I get the same kind of dopamine hits identifying scammers and getting them banned that I once did finding desirable tickets for resale in the pre-platinum pricing era. But I only have so much time to spend and too much time in front of the computer causes my lower back to ache and my carpal tunnel to flare up. I have to sleep and also refuse to keep Reddit on my phone. And I get occasionally blocked from participating, a consequence of growing up in the era of the free speech internet. I am blocked right now, giving me time to finish this article. To the best of my knowledge there are only a few people attempting to bust the scams and the occasional person identifying a post so blatant they have to call it out right there.

Any war against tickets are mostly an uphill and futile endeavor. Scammers getting banned is a minor inconvenience as they have an endless supply of karma farmed accounts and work in shifts around the clock. Rarely do they end up in jail or hanging from the rafters. They operate in places far outside the reach of the law. The way the algorithms are engineered and "karma" is assigned treats sellers from fraud hotspots in Africa and fans in the west equally. Without direct intervention from Reddit it will a lost war among the small individual victories. The scammers always win in the end. 


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As you can see I am not offering any advice on how to avoid these scams other than just don't send money to strangers for tickets. Only buy from official outlets or reputable resale sites. You can't outwit or outcompete the Kenya scam mafia.  I am also aware someone who has never heard of these schemes can also easily reverse engineer this article so this could also be a how to guide. All the more reason to heed the warnings. 


>>> I HAVE TO TIGHTEN THIS UP A BIT AND READ THRU WITH A CLEAR HEAD <<<