PHOENIX — Spring Training season is about a month away and one Valley man is warning about a scam that took him for hundreds.
Richard was buying tickets for his family from a ticket reseller, Seatgeek.
He says he accidentally double-clicked and bought more tickets than he needed.
When he couldn't find the Seatgeek phone number, he did an online search.
He says he found a number that said it was customer service for Seatgeek.
He just wanted a refund of $150 for the extra tickets he mistakenly bought.
He didn't know at the time, but it wasn't the real business.
Richard was being scammed.
For the next six hours, Richard would be in his car, led by a scammer around the Valley, and spending much more than those tickets could ever cost.
He was told he needed a special account to get his refund but he had to set it up by funding it first.
The "customer service" man said Richard needed to fund the account by buying a Stubhub, Seatgeek or eBay gift card.
So, Richard drove to a nearby store with the man still on the phone. He bought a gift card, and was told to scratch off the back and read the numbers.
So he did.
The "customer service" rep told Richard the card didn't have enough funds to make the refund and he needed another $300 gift card.
Richard says he accused the man of scamming him, but he says the man's response made sense.
So, back in the car and back to a store, Richard buys another card, reads the numbers and you guessed it -- he's told the cards are no good.
Even though he suspects a scam, Richard does what I've seen happen many times.
Like a gambler in trouble, he's in so deep now, he continues, being told if he doesn't, he'll lose it all.
Richard says getting his original investment back is all he could think about.
So, he buys another $300 worth of cards.
This time, when he's again told he needs more, he calls out the scammer and hangs up.
But it's not before Richard spent $750 trying to get a refund for the $150 tickets.
I called the same number.
And I called them out for trying to scam me, the same way.
Richard is hoping for a **very** good game, spending $900 for those $150 seats.
And he warns that he also thought, "it could never happen to me."
We contacted Seatgeek. They did refund money for the extra tickets and they say they're looking into that scam phone number.
Be very careful with online searches.
It's where scams use real business names to lure you.
