Jacksonville doctor says he lost more than $4,000 to cyber thieves after his Ticketmaster account was hacked

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Imagine spending over $4,000 on front row tickets to concerts and college football games, only to miss the events because you fell victim to cyber thieves.

This is the frustrating situation a local doctor now faces.

On May 31, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, disclosed in an 8-K filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that it had discovered unauthorized activity involving Ticketmaster data about a week and a half earlier. A publicly traded company files an 8-K when an unexpected major event occurs that is important to shareholders and investors AARP.

Jim Whited, a nurse in Jacksonville, told News4JAX that Ticketmaster still hasn’t rectified his situation, saying he still hasn’t been able to reach a human in Ticketmaster’s fraud department nearly three months after the theft.

“They ended up with my front row tickets to see Alanis Morrisette, my front row tickets to see Jewel and Melissa Etheridge, and my front row tickets to see Jason Aldean in Georgia with VIP meet and greets, Jim Whited, a Ticketmaster customer, said. “They finally got my Alabama tickets, which arrive on November 5.”

And on top of that, Jim Whited told the News4JAX ITEAM that cyber thieves bought Jacksonville Jaguars tickets and tickets to a Nicki Minaj concert after he changed his login information on the Ticketmaster website. Whited said the thefts happened in August and he has yet to speak to a Ticketmaster employee.

“I called Ticketmaster 100 times,” Whited said. “I was on hold for more than four hours three times. Mind you, every time I talk to someone they tell me we’ll be in touch. Someone from the fraud department will call you.’

Instead, Whited said he communicated with Ticketmaster’s AI assistant. He shared his frustrating text exchange with the News4JAX ITEAM.

Ticketmaster Fan Support wrote: “Hi Jim, To best assist you, please select one of the options below, or click “Go Back” for additional topics.”

Whited wrote: “My account has been hacked and all my tickets have been stolen.”

Ticketmaster Fan Support responded: “To best assist you, please select one of the options below or click go back. What can I help you with?”

Whited replied: “I’ve been saying this for months and no one is helping me. My account was hacked due to your data breach and all my tickets were taken from me.

Without response, Whited said he felt violated by Ticketmaster.

“I think you need to straighten this out,” Whited said. “I missed meeting Jewel. I missed the meeting with Jason Aldean. I missed the front row to see Alanis Morissette. I’m going to miss the front row tickets to Alabama, and you have to do your best. You are the largest monopolizing company when it comes to tickets, but you are not treating your customers with the same respect that you want to be treated with as the leader in the industry. It’s despicable.”

We contacted Ticketmaster and provided them with all the information we published in this story, and we received the response below.

Overall, our digital ticketing innovations 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 in almost all cases recover fans’ tickets. 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. That’s why Ticketmaster continually invests in new security improvements to protect fans.

Ticketmaster spokesperson

Ticketmaster told News4JAX that Ticketmaster passwords were not exposed during the data breach earlier this year and that they are seeing scammers gain access to a fan’s email account.

Whited said he still hasn’t heard anything.

Another woman in Northeast Florida also contacted News4JAX after experiencing a similar problem.

Lisa Ann said she was part of this data breach at Ticketmaster. She said she bought more than $1,400 worth of concert tickets to attend a Morgan Wallen concert in Tampa, but when she went to check her tickets they had been transferred to someone else. Also frustrated, Ann had to work hard to get back what she had lost.

“I was able to contact the Better business agency and get my money back,” said Lisa Ann. “I ended up having to buy new tickets.”

Ticketmaster confirmed with USA Today that fans whose concert tickets disappeared from their accounts were victims of hackers.

“What we are seeing are scammers gaining access to a fan’s email account,” said a Ticketmaster spokesperson told USA TODAY.

If you suspect fraud with your Ticketmaster or Live Nation account, Ticketmaster says no contact them here.