With over 150,000 fans, Ticketmaster’s Facebook page is one of the most popular. Too bad most of its friends’ profiles are fake.
Reader Chris wrote in to let us know that he was incredulous that so many people could be fans of Ticketmaster, so he did a little investigating. What he found out, and what these screenshots I took demonstrate, is that most of Ticketmaster’s fans are fake profiles with names like “Hamm Beerger,” “Stebe Jobs,” or “Asdsd Dasdasdas.” They have no profile pictures and most of them have no friends other than Ticketmaster. What we originally thought was lazy astroturfing by Ticketmaster turned out to be lazy astroturfing sponsored by Ticketmaster. In October, Ticketmaster apparently ran a promotion offering five free iTunes downloads to Facebook users who added Ticketmaster as a friend. Neither Facebook nor Ticketmaster verified anything, and now Ticketmaster is more popular than Starbucks, Marmite, and the entire sport of basketball.
For the record, all of Tax Cat’s fans are real.
Ticketmaster Creates Fake Facebook Profiles to Look More Popular [East Village Idiot] (Thanks to Chris and Mark!)
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EEEEEPPPPPIIIICCCCC FAAAAAAIIIIIILLLLLL!!!!!!
I’m more pissed about their cut of ticket sales than some lame ass Facebook profile stuffing!
Does anybody actually believe what they read on the interweb?
“Hamm Berger”
Priceless.
i laughed.
Go Tax Cat!
I’m TC’s biggest fan.
Their friends are as fake as their fees.
you can fight back. Report them for false IDs.
Stick it back at them.
oh no!
and here i was thinking i was special, being Lkjlkj Kjlkjl’s only friend. Now here comes Ticketmaster. What a hussy.
A lot of people signed up as a fan to get those 5 free iTunes codes..it was a promotion in Nov 07. A lot of people also made fake accounts (since you don’t need a student addy anymore) to get more codes. I was one of those people but when I tried to get the codes on my fake profile it wouldn’t work..I just abandoned the profile than try to go through the hoops with Facebook to delete it.
LOL so all these fake friends are just people who wanted free iTunes. Guess you know how to get a lot of friends on facebook now. It’ll only cost you five bucks per friend. A bargain! Thanks for pointing out this excellent way to buy friends on the cheap, Consumerist!
I added Ticketmaster as a friend a long time ago because of the 5 free downloads. I have to say, removing them as a friend was a real pain in the ass. after I deleted them as a friend there was still a ticketmaster upcoming events section on my profile that I couldn’t get to go away. There was a little link in fine print at the bottom of their page.
Devil’s advocate time: having fake friends is better than having none. [No, I'm not sobbing, it just sounds like I am!]
I joined that 5 itunes thing and then left.
Its funny that they actually took advantage of fake friends to increase their leverage.
i made several fake accounts to get more redemtion codes lol
So what happens when the real Asdsd Dasdasdas wants to create a Facebook page?
also, the lame part about those redemption codes is that they expired. By the time I went to use them, they were no good anymore :-/ and now I’m a damn friend of tickmaster. I should go unfriend them.
I think Marmite is astroturfing too. No way that many people have tasted it and lived, let alone become “friends” with it.
Ticket Disaster is a giant fraud.
damn I didn’t even THINK of making a fake account to get more free songs. GAH!
@overbysara: Me either
Ticketmaster, meet Internet. Internet, Ticketmaster.
Srsly tho, I don’t think they care because at least they are at the top of the list and they think that counts for visibility.
Oh yeah, I remember that… I had used my army of zombie emails to create 100 new accounts on facebook. A couple of hours of work in exchange for 500 iTunes downloads. :^D
I got a shitload of free iTunes codes with that. thank god for mailinator.
Ticketmaster is friends with my 30-50 alter egos.:)
Sounds like I should change the title of the post to “Ticketmaster’s Facebook Page Is Full Of Clever, Cynical Consumerist Readers”
I have over 50 of the profiles. Got about 250 free songs out of the deal.
@lesbiansayswhat:
Yeup…And I was one of them – or should I say 35 of them – I think it was 35, I know it took me a hellufa lot of time on iTunes to find enough music to use up all those freebie codes.
Thanks TM!
@Alex Chasick: Seriously, looks like tech savvy readers are responsible for all of it. And I couldn’t get my one fake email to work for additional dls. I feel so unworthy.
How dare you call me fake! I’m one of Ticketmaster’s dearest friends!
The whole time I thought it was the CAPTCHA defeating method of giving people in developing nations free porn pictures for completing remedial tasks.
I joined the itunes thing in over 20 fake accounts.
@macinjosh: I’m one of those friends and I love it! Bacon and Marmite toasted sandwich…mmmm now I’m hungry
Ah I love smelling the fresh scent of “fail” in the morning lol.
sad, oh so sad….
and i still refuse to buy any tickets from them.
This crap is exactly why I finally canceled my FaceBook account. Oh, that and the 80+ invites I had to join in “Pirates vs Ninjas”…
Oh, and Ticketmaster eats people.
Looks like the bots that hog all the tickets for scalping are following Ticket Master even in Facebook.