Utah Jazz gift NBA All-Star tickets to woman ripped off trying to buy seats online

LEHI — Sunday night's NBA All-Star Game is sold out and has been for a week. If you want tickets, it means buying them from someone who already has them. But how do you know if the tickets you are buying are any good?

Jenny Williams turned to online classifieds in search of two tickets.

"My daughter and son really wanted to go to the NBA All-Star Game," she said.

She found someone willing to part with two seats for $1,000. Not a great deal, but in line with what some tickets were going for with popular ticket resellers.

Buying directly from someone appealed to Williams because it meant avoiding nearly $400 in fees. "The fees are just ridiculous," she said.

Williams sent the seller nearly $1,000 through money transfer apps and then — you guessed it. "Yep, never heard from him again, once he had the money," she said.

"Whenever there's an event that a lot of people are trying to get to that's competitive and hard to get tickets for, there's going to be some scammers out there hoping to get a slice of that pie," said Britta Clark with the Utah Better Business Bureau. Every year BBB hears many complaints from people who were ripped off trying to buy tickets.

Her advice? "Whenever possible you want to purchase from the venue," she said. "Many official ticket sales agents do offer secondary options but once those all sell out, you're pretty much at the mercy of a secondary reseller or broker. And those can sometimes be where you start to get into scammy territory."

With some tickets for the All-Star Game going for more than $12,000, people trying to avoid those prices or the accompanying fees fall right into a scammer's web.

Ticket sellers and particularly ticket fees have been a topic in Washington, D.C., in recent weeks.

"I think it's a nightmare dressed like a daydream," said Utah Sen. Mike Lee, quoting lyrics last month during hearings held by the Senate Judiciary Committee over Ticketmaster's botched sale of Taylor Swift tickets.

And President Joe Biden took aim at ticket fees in his State of the Union speech just last week.

"Americans are tired of being — we're tired of being played for suckers," he said.

None of that, of course, helps Williams, who, looking back, recognizes missed warning signs.

"He was just really pushy and making us feel like we had to buy them right away because all these people were looking at the tickets," she said.

And now, with her $1,000 lining the pockets of a crook, she thought her kids would not be able to attend the All-Star Game on Sunday.

"I was sick to my stomach," she said. "Just losing that much money and then knowing we couldn't afford to buy tickets after losing that much money."

Then Utah Jazz executives saw the KSL report and decided to step up.

Utah Jazz Chief Commercial Officer Chris Barney called Get Gephardt Thursday saying that he and Jazz President Jim Olson saw that report and wanted to give Williams' kids seats to the game.

According to Williams, they transferred her two lower-bowl seats for the game, as well as all other activities happening at the arena throughout the weekend.

Williams called the gesture, "amazing," and says her kids are elated, "more than you can imagine."

All tickets to the All-Star Game are digital this year, so if you have somebody trying to sell you a paper ticket, that is a guaranteed scam.

Williams believes that is part of the issue. With digital tickets, there is no face-to-face meeting. You have to trust sellers will send the actual tickets if you send the money.

You can see a list of all scheduled All-Star events here.

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