Counterfeit tickets sold online to 31 fans
Eugene police denied 31 people entry into Autzen Stadium Saturday because of counterfeit tickets.
Detective Steve Williams said those turned away likely did not know they had purchased a fraudulent ticket.
“Many would have purchased the tickets via the Internet or private ticket sales and thought them to be the real thing,” he wrote in a press release.
He said the tickets looked virtually identical to real tickets.
“The printing is not quite as crisp. There probably was a legitimate ticket that was scanned and then copied,” he said.
Williams said the tickets were printed on paper very similar or identical to actual ticket paper, which is available for purchase on the Internet.
The tickets were all standing room only or general admission, which would have made them harder to spot before there were barcodes to scan, according to Williams.
Dave Williford, a spokesman for the athletic department, said the department’s new electronic ticketing system made the fraudulent tickets easier to catch, but many have been caught before using “an observant eye.”
“It’s not unusual even without the scanners to say, ‘This is not an authentic ticket,’” he said.
Williford said catching fake tickets was one of the reasons for switching to a new electronic system.
He said he could not estimate how the 31 tickets caught at Saturday’s game compared to the number of fraudulent tickets found in the past.
Williams said anyone turned away from the game should contact him or the athletic department immediately, “because they were the victims of theft, essentially.”
Police are also looking for any leads on where the tickets were purchased. Williams said he knew at least one came from www.craigslist.org.
“If you buy (a ticket) from a guy on the street, or if you buy it on craigslist or eBay, you’re taking a risk,” Williams said. “Especially if you buy it on game day.”
Anyone with information can contact Williams at 682-2682.
New electronic ticketing system still allows transferable tickets
Despite the confusion and rumors surrounding the athletic department’s new electronic ticketing system, it does not attach student identification numbers to tickets or render them non-transferable, according to the department.
Tickets are now assigned barcodes that connect them to the buyer but they are still transferable between students, department spokesman Dave Williford said.
“The ID number and barcoding is basically a customer service number,” he said. “It doesn’t offer any more restrictions than student tickets ever did.”
The barcodes and scanning machines are as of yet the only features of an electronic ticketing system for which the Student Senate allocated $30,000 in over-realized student fees last year.
But Williford said future possibilities include a buyback system for people who have purchased tickets but cannot go to the game and tickets that can be printed at home.
That would help students waiting in line for hours and missing class to buy tickets the day they become available.
“I waited four hours in line in between classes,” freshman Erin Craig said. “A lot of people were skipping classes. I was like, ‘What the heck?’”
Student Sen. and Athletic Department Finance Committee member Kyle McKenzie said, “Someone called and yelled at me that the lines are taking forever.”
Though the new ticketing system apparently did not help the wait, Williford said students should not blame the long lines on the changes.
“It’s unfair to draw the conclusion that the new system caused the delays,” he said. Other reasons included more student tickets being available for this game than the previous games this season, more students on campus, and high interest in Saturday’s game.
“You have to take all those factors into consideration rather than saying the system caused delays,” he said. “Part of the intent is to make distribution easier, not more difficult.”
The ADFC, the student group that negotiates student tickets with the athletic department, decided to purchase fewer tickets for games with less interest because the season includes an additional home game.
The first two games this year had 1,350 student tickets available. Saturday’s game had 5,670 student tickets available. All of the student tickets were distributed, but 441 student tickets to Saturday’s game went unused, according to Events Manager Vicki Strand.
Even though some students still did not use their tickets, Autzen Stadium had a record crowd of 59,273 fans, according to www.goducks.com.
Strand said there are no penalties for students who get tickets but don’t use them, but, “We would like everybody who picks up a ticket to use them.”
Fraud and confusion on game day
Daily Emerald
October 1, 2007
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