Ticketmaster customers in Montreal are raising the alarm after online tickets disappeared

Myriam Estrella was excited to take her partner to a Montreal Canadiens game in her hometown on Tuesday night. But when she checked her account, her tickets were gone.

The tickets had been claimed by someone else – an account she didn’t recognize.

Estrella, who now lives in Florida, filed a complaint with Ticketmaster for help, but says nothing happened until she started voicing her concerns on her popular TikTok account.

“I was at a very, very privileged place when I was able to show a million people that story and say, ‘Wow, this isn’t right,'” she told CBC News on Thursday.

“Not every person has a million people to hold a company accountable.”

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She was able to join the game, but she said it seemed like it was an attempt by the company to save face. She said it made her feel like the company isn’t concerned about a bigger problem: tickets being stolen from their accounts.

Ticketmaster’s TikTok account responded to her videos saying the tickets had been reinstated. But Estrella isn’t the only Ticketmaster customer who buys tickets only to see them disappear.

“I was angry, but sad, not only for me, who fought like crazy for a week, but also for my friends – knowing that they trusted me. I let them down a bit,” said Fredericke Lapierre, who her own experience told about the battle against the ticket giant. due to missing concert tickets.

Lapierre and her friends still went to the show, but they had to get new seats, which cost hundreds more.

“The sad thing is I’m afraid to buy tickets on Ticketmaster right now,” Lapierre said.

Data breach Ticketmaster connected, says expert

In July, Ticketmaster sent an email to customers stating that a data breach had first been identified in May. At the time it was about stolen data may contain credit card and contact information.

Ticketmaster said this week that no passwords were disclosed in the breach and that CBC News could not confirm a link between the breach and missing tickets.

However, technology columnist Carmi Levy says there is a connection. He said fraudsters can match data from the breach, such as email addresses, with previously leaked passwords to see which accounts they have access to.

“(They) try to log into various accounts, including Ticketmaster. Once they log in, it appears as if they are logging in as the owner of this account,” Levy explained.

“Then they can use that access to sell the tickets held on that account, posing as the legitimate owner of that account.”

He said this is a common problem that persists for months, if not years, after a data breach. He noted that these scams are becoming more common and people need to be better prepared.

The trick, he said, is to go to your Ticketmaster account and change the password first. Then add two-step verification and use encrypted password managers to better secure accounts and reduce the risk of data theft.

“Stop using the same passwords for all these different accounts,” says Levy. “That makes it incredibly simple. You’re essentially giving the master key to cybercriminals as soon as they break in.”

Ticketmaster says technology is improving

As for Estrella, she said she still doesn’t know how the tickets were stolen. She said Ticketmaster told her the theft was related to her personal email account, but that she regularly used new email addresses.

Ticketmaster says its innovations in online ticketing have significantly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicate PDFs.

“Having that digital history is also how we can investigate the situation and reinstate fans’ tickets,” the statement said.

“The best way fans can protect themselves is to set a strong, unique password for all accounts, especially for their personal email address, where we often see security issues arise.”

Scammers are looking for new cheats in every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, Ticketmaster said in its statement, adding that it is “continually investing in new security enhancements to protect fans.”