Counterfeit Concert Tickets on the Rise in Country Music
With the rise in popularity of country music recently comes a rise in both the demand and prices for concert tickets. And with so many sold out shows and high-priced tickets comes the opportunity for counterfeiters to take advantage of fans looking for entry to see their favorite artists. Counterfeit concert tickets are on the rise in country music, and fans are being taken advantage of more than ever before as they resort to the secondary market and rely on sites like Craigslist to get tickets.
27-year-old Geoffrey Dean Minton from Tampa, Florida is currently sitting in the Hillsborough County jail on $20,000 bail after being arrested on Tuesday (10-14) on six counts of grand theft, eight counts of possessing forged documents, and two counts of communications fraud. The charges stem from a sting local police set up after Minton sold at least two separate parties counterfeit tickets to Luke Bryan’s concert at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on Sept. 28, according to tampabay.com.
Both parties who purchased tickets from Minton on Craigslist took pictures of his drivers license and noted his license plate during the purchases that were originally set up through a Craigslist ad. “If these are fake, I’m going to find you and you’re going to pay for this,” Chris Vazquez, one of the frauded patrons told Minton at the time of the purchase. Sure enough, when Vazquez arrived at the Luke Bryan concert, just like another concertgoer Marvin Mendez who purchased four tickets from Geoffrey Minton for $400, they were told they were counterfeit.
This prompted Tampa police to set up a sting for the Jason Aldean concert on Oct. 10th at the same Tampa venue. Officers arrested Geoffrey Minton in a CVS parking lot where he set up a meeting with a local ticket broker as part of the sting. He was found with eight counterfeit Jason Aldean concert tickets in his car. Police know of an additional five victims of Geoffrey Minton’s counterfeiting, but think there could be as many as a dozen.
Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean have been country concert counterfeiter’s favorite artists, due partly to the fact that their sold out shows send floods of fans looking for tickets on the secondary market that are willing to pay top dollar.
On Saturday, September 6th, West Springfield, CT police arrested two men for allegedly selling counterfeit tickets to the Luke Bryan concert at Hartford’s Xfinity Theatre. At the time, the concert was sold out. A man sold a family four tickets for nearly $700. Since the tickets were made of card stock, were perforated, and had bar codes, the family wasn’t worried. But with the sophistication of today’s counterfeiter’s, seeing is not always believing.
This summer’s tour with Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line also faced counterfeiting issues. On August 29th, a New York City man by the name of Cy Ismeal Rivera was arrested at a mall in Albany, NY for selling fake tickets to the Jason Aldean / Florida Georgia Line concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Police contacted the man on Craigslist and offered to purchase six tickets. When they met the man at the local mall and confirmed the tickets were counterfeit, they arrested him on charges of first-degree “scheme to defraud.”
The Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple Sr. later posted on Facebook, “Attention!!! This is a warning to those of you who feel the need to jump on those $10 buses and travel from downstate to the Capital District to try and prey upon us ole’ country folk here in upstate…..our investigators will find you just like we did today when your friend travelled up here to sell my investigators fake tickets for Jason Aldean. Dozens of people have been scammed to date, and we now have the subject responsible!”
On May 28th, three people were arrested in Farmville, North Carolina for selling counterfeit tickets to a Luke Bryan concert in Raleigh on June 7th at the Walnut Creek Ampitheatre. Greenville, NC residents Michael Corrigan, Martin Luna Jr. and Russell Brooks were charged with obtaining property by false pretense and felony conspiracy.
In September of 2013, four people were arrested at a hotel in Green Tree, NY for selling fake Luke Bryan tickets to a concert at the First Niagara Pavilion. According to Green Tree Police Chief Bob Downey, the counterfeiters were selling tickets at a price of $300 for two, and $600 for four. After one group of individuals bought counterfeit tickets from the sellers on Craigslist and realized they’d been duped, they arranged to purchase more ticket and brought police with them. Four men from the Bronx were arrested. “Some of the equipment that we found in their possession was indicative of a counterfeit-making operation,” Police Chief Downey said. A total of 20 people were believed to be scammed in the operation.
Scalping and scamming are symptoms of the high demand for country concert tickets at shows that sometimes sell out within a matter of minutes. Eric Church has been actively taking on scalpers during his current concert tour, warning them “Don’t even mess with us.” Meanwhile the desire to keep ticket prices down and make sure everyone gets a seat is the strategy behind Garth Brooks’ current world tour where he’s played as many as eight concerts in the same location, including multiple concerts on the same day. The idea is simply to to flood the market with tickets so scalpers and scammers have limited demand. Because of this, the price for Garth tickets on the secondary market has been staying closer to face value for many of the concert stops.
In March, Ticketmaster posted a notice to fans of how to spot counterfeit tickets. “With many high-demand shows throughout the summer, it’s important for us to remind you about counterfeit tickets,” the ticket selling giant said. “We have heard heartbreaking and devastating stories from fans that didn’t make it into a big show and were turned away at the door with counterfeit tickets. We don’t want this to happen to you!”
October 15, 2014 @ 11:20 am
Not real tickets for not real artists. Seems fitting. 😀
October 15, 2014 @ 11:21 am
The counterfeit part is branding these concerts as “country”…
October 15, 2014 @ 11:22 am
I remember back in May of 2013 a mother of a little girl got scammed for tickets for Taylor Swift’s Dallas Red Tour show at Cowboys Stadium and when the tickets were declined as fake that little girl was so sad and heartbroken
October 15, 2014 @ 11:48 am
Truly depressing. What website did they purchase the tickets from?
October 15, 2014 @ 6:16 pm
They bought the tickets from Craigslist I believe which is already unreliable enough in my opinion. It also happened to a family in August of 2013 for Taylor Swift’s Chicago show who also bought from Craigslist. The seller was selling pit tickets for $100 each and it all seemed to good to be true but he bought them anyway and that was $700 down the drain.
October 15, 2014 @ 11:57 am
The only thing worse than having a fake ticket and not being able to see a Luke Bryan concert would be having a real ticket and seeing a Luke Bryan concert.
October 15, 2014 @ 12:18 pm
I gotta agree with everyone else who has pointed out that counterfeit tickets for counterfeit fans of counterfeit country music kinda makes sense.
October 15, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
Did the counterfeit tickets also include a copy of Corb Lund’s Counterfeit Blues? That would go a long way towards solving their problem.
October 15, 2014 @ 6:06 pm
On the other hand, it’s a real shame that people are doing this. Even if you don’t like the music, the people (and particularly the kids) don’t deserve to be scammed out of their hard earned money.
On another note, what Garth Brooks is doing sounds truly awesome. It seems as if he is truly making it about the fans. It’s a nice contrast to the limited tours most big acts do.
October 15, 2014 @ 6:11 pm
I didn’t have any issues with my Sturgill Simpson tickets last week. Coincidence? I think not.
October 16, 2014 @ 5:52 am
Yeah, other than them selling out in one day, then going up on StubHub for $125.00 – $150.00 the very same day. No problems at all! Fucking scalpers are every bit as bad as counterfeiters. Scum.
October 16, 2014 @ 3:18 am
Who buys tickets off craigslist in the first place.
October 16, 2014 @ 11:31 am
People who are desperate to get into concerts that sell out in 4 minutes. That is why counterfeiters are targeting Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, because the demand is so high, people are willing to take the risk or have no choice.
October 16, 2014 @ 6:48 am
Trigger, you should also mention that Garth is doing “credit card entry only” with many seats. I attended 2 shows where you could not get in without the original credit card used to purchase the tix. I think that is a great idea.
October 16, 2014 @ 11:26 am
Interesting. The scalping issue is sort of its own animal, but it is interesting the steps being taken to combat it. With the success Garth is having with his current tour, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more double concerts and matinees by artists whose shows regularly sell out, to help keep prices down, scalpers out, and of course make more money. I’m surprised we don’t see more of this already. It’s pretty common for performers that are big enough to sell out theaters to book multiple shows in a row, but for some reason there’s resistance to it from arena and stadium acts. Garth’s tour might change all of that.
October 17, 2014 @ 6:44 pm
What Garth did was cool. Instead of scanning the bar code, they scanned the card and a receipt with seat info printed off their hand-held devices. The problem with that, though, is that you cannot resell the tickets if you have an emergency and can’t attend the show. Losing $65 for a Garth ticket wouldn’t be the end of the world. But I lost a lot of money for several will-call only concerts when my Mom died several years ago (Musictoday is a piece of shit company). Because of that, I want the tickets in hand. Interesting, though, the Ryman reimbursed me and didn’t even ask for proof of death.
I’ve bought many tickets on Ebay and Stubhub over the years and feel fortunate I’ve never had a problem.
October 16, 2014 @ 7:28 am
Concert tickets have become increasingly impossible for the average fan to get a hold of. A hot show can sell out in less than five minutes, is that even physically possible?
Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Clear Channel, ticket agents and artists play games with tickets, which truly hurt the fans, not to forget the excessive service charges.
How many of those thousands of tickets Garth is selling are really in the hands of the concert goers?
This is why people buy from scalpers and ticket agents, they have no option, sad sometime they get taken for big bucks.
In about an hour there is a radio station putting it’s Christmas show on sale, all the ticket agents have already been selling tickets for days with specific seats already noted. The prices are quite extravagant, how does this happen?
About the only thing I like about Eric Church is his trying to curtail these ticket practices.
February 13, 2015 @ 2:08 pm
AVOID THIS TICKET SCAM & SCAMMERS
He Goes By Eric or Manny , He’s A Scammer – His Phone Number is 347-364-2344
IF YOU THINK YOU WERE RIPPED OFF BY HIM TOO LET ME KNOW, – RESPOND TO AD
*SOLD Fake SAM HUNT Live Nation TICKETS* – Counterfeit Counterfeiter
”¢ IF SELLER IS SHIFTY and UNCLEAR ON WHEN THEY CAN MEET YOU – AVOID
”¢ IF IT SEEMS LIKE THEY’RE MAKING SOMETHING SIMPLE DIFFICULT -AVOID
”¢ IF THE TRANSACTION IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE – AVOID
”¢ IF THEY ARE NOT A FAN OF THE MUSIC OR GENRE – AVOID
August 30, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
AVOID THIS TICKET SCAM & SCAMMERS
He Goes By KELVIN , He’s A Scammer – His Phone Number is 347-364-2344
IF YOU THINK YOU WERE RIPPED OFF BY HIM TOO LET ME KNOW, – RESPOND TO AD
*SOLD Fake SAM HUNT Live Nation TICKETS* – Counterfeit Counterfeiter
”¢ IF SELLER IS SHIFTY and UNCLEAR ON WHEN THEY CAN MEET YOU – AVOID
”¢ IF IT SEEMS LIKE THEY’RE MAKING SOMETHING SIMPLE DIFFICULT -AVOID
”¢ IF THE TRANSACTION IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE – AVOID
”¢ IF THEY ARE NOT A FAN OF THE MUSIC OR GENRE – AVOID
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October 6, 2016 @ 10:05 am
He is still listing on craigslist under the name James using phone number 929-226-3570 but on the tickets he uses ph# 347-364-2344. He has fake beyonce tickets. I didn’t buy them bc I felt like it was a scam once I called him. Selling $350 seats for $175 total scam. He has tons of adds on NYC craigslist and claims to live in Manhattan.