High-Tech Scalpers have Unfair Advantage

High-Tech Scalpers have Unfair Advantage


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(KSL News) Hannah Montana concert tickets are the hottest commodity in the country.

The show is so popular in Utah that a second show was added at EnergySolutions Arena.

Utah parents were hoping for a second chance to make their little girls happy when tickets for the second show went on sale Saturday. Most walked away empty handed trying to console heartbroken kids.

The story is the same across the country. Darlene Donaldson, from Fargo, N.D., said, "We have nose bleed seats, and they are well over $200 for each of us, so we are furious."

The problem, say parents and authorities across the country, is that high-tech scalpers have an unfair advantage.

The scalpers use computer programs to snatch up hundreds of tickets at a time from Ticketmaster the minute they go on sale. Paco Balderram, from the Oklahoma City Police Department, said, "This software, what it does is jams up the system and automatically buys a large quantity of these tickets."

Those tickets are then resold on Web sites like eBay, StubHub, or through other ticket brokers.

At least three states have filed lawsuits saying ticket resellers are violating consumer protection laws.

And last week, Ticketmaster won a preliminary injunction, barring the maker of the ticket buying software from distributing its product.

Tonight on Eyewitness News at 10 we'll look at how many of the seats available for the Hannah Montana concerts in Salt Lake are posted on eBay and ticket broker sites, and what, if anything, the state is going to do about it.

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