Two moms wanted to take their daughters to see Taylor Swift when she played in St. Louis recently, but didn’t have tickets. That’s fine: that’s what the underground ticket economy is for, right? In theory, but they managed to get scammed twice in one night by two different ticket sellers, and almost missed the concert.

The night of the concert, they found a listing for tickets through Craigslist. Nothing raised any warning flags for them, until they sent off an online payment and waited for the e-mail notification that their tickets had been transferred. They kept waiting, but no tickets came.

Fine: there should be plenty of people hawking tickets outside the stadium doors, right? They found a friendly neighborhood scalper outside venue and got to business. “They went back and forth with each other, made us feel like we were getting really a bargain,” the mom who didn’t negotiate said.

Counterfeit tickets aren’t a bargain at any price, though, and that’s what they bought. (Negotiating on the price makes you feel more confident that the deal is real.)

On the third try, they successfully bought real tickets and got to attend the concert, but not without losing money to scammers twice.

Sometimes we all have to turn to the secondary market for tickets, but you can protect yourself while doing so. Deal with verified sellers when dealing in tickets. If you’re buying them right outside the door, and that’s legal in your area, have the seller walk you to the turnstile and take a picture of them: if they’re trying to sell you bogus tickets, they won’t do either of those things.

Mothers scammed twice over Taylor Swift concert tickets [KTVI]

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