Ticketmaster suits: Resellers used device to skirt security
Posted: April 26, 2007 11:50 am
Todays Boston Globe (4-26) has an article about Ticketmaster suing some people who have found ways to get around the Tickmaster web site and order extra tickets etc. I think it is what a lot of us had figured what was going on.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/ar ... _security/
Firm alleges 4 in state made illegal purchases
By Bruce A. Mohl, Globe Staff | April 26, 2007
A series of lawsuits filed by Ticketmaster LLC is shedding light on one of the biggest mysteries surrounding ticket resellers: Where do they get their tickets?
According to the lawsuits, the resellers buy tickets straight from Ticketmaster using sophisticated software that lets them bypass security measures and make rapid-fire purchases using multiple credit cards and e-mail addresses.
A suit filed in US District Court in Los Angeles accuses four Massachusetts residents of illegally buying more than 45,000 tickets on Ticketmaster.com since early 2003 and then reselling them at a profit.
Similar suits have been filed against resellers in Illinois and Texas and officials with RMG Technologies Inc. of Steubenville, Ohio. RMG allegedly orchestrated the ticket purchases using automated devices that allowed users to sidestep Ticketmaster security measures and ticket purchase limits, according to the lawsuit.
Since 2003, according to the lawsuits, resellers in the three states bought nearly 120,000 tickets through Ticketmaster and then resold them. Ticketmaster said other unnamed individuals may have purchased large quantities of tickets in the same way.
Joseph Freeman , vice president and assistant general counsel for Ticketmaster in West Hollywood, Calif., which sells tickets on behalf of sports teams, theaters, and concert venues across the country, said the company's investigation is continuing.
"We as a company are committed on behalf of our clients to putting as many tickets as possible in to the hands of fans at face price," Freeman said.
The four Massachusetts resellers were identified by Ticketmaster as Cheryl, Thomas, Kelly, and Ryan Prior .
Joseph S. Provanzano , an attorney representing the Priors, said Cheryl and Thomas are divorced and Kelly and Ryan are their children. He said Cheryl and the children had no knowledge of the ticket purchases.
Provanzano said Thomas J. Prior has bought tickets in the past through Ticketmaster and resold some of them and used some of them himself. He was unsure how many tickets in all had been purchased and resold or at what prices.
"He's a guy in his home," Provanzano said. "When tickets go on sale, he hires people to come in and buy tickets."
Massachusetts officials said no one named Prior is licensed as a ticket reseller here. State law requires anyone in the business of reselling tickets to be licensed by the state and charge no more than $2 above face value, plus certain service and business expenses.
Provanzano indicated Prior may have used the RMG technology, but he said it merely speeds up the ticket-purchasing process. He said Ticketmaster has not been harmed.
"Ticketmaster has always been paid for every single ticket that has been purchased," he said. He noted Prior tried to return some tickets to Ticketmaster and the company refused to provide a refund.
Ticketmaster has security measures in place to block automated attacks on its ticketing system, but it acknowledges in the lawsuits that the measures don't always work.
One Ticketmaster security program requires a customer placing a ticket order to read a series of random characters partially obscured behind hash marks and then retype those characters into a box. The purpose of the program is to make sure the order is being placed by a person rather than a computer.
In its lawsuits, Ticketmaster said most automated devices cannot decipher and retype the random characters and therefore cannot complete a ticket transaction. But Ticketmaster said software "bots" developed by RMG can circumvent the security program, allowing ticket brokers to buy tickets much faster and in greater quantities than the general public.
"A customer can use multiple bots -- sometimes hundreds of them -- simultaneously to flood the Ticketmaster website with requests for tickets," Ticketmaster said in its lawsuit against RMG.
The lawsuit said RMG screens all of its customers carefully to make sure they won't alert Ticketmaster. Because of RMG's safety precautions, Ticketmaster said it took years to uncover the ticket-buying system.
"Ticketmaster is informed and believes that defendants have consulted with customers throughout the United States, including in California, to lend assistance in establishing or expanding the customers' illegal ticket-buying activities," the RMG lawsuit says.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/ar ... _security/
Firm alleges 4 in state made illegal purchases
By Bruce A. Mohl, Globe Staff | April 26, 2007
A series of lawsuits filed by Ticketmaster LLC is shedding light on one of the biggest mysteries surrounding ticket resellers: Where do they get their tickets?
According to the lawsuits, the resellers buy tickets straight from Ticketmaster using sophisticated software that lets them bypass security measures and make rapid-fire purchases using multiple credit cards and e-mail addresses.
A suit filed in US District Court in Los Angeles accuses four Massachusetts residents of illegally buying more than 45,000 tickets on Ticketmaster.com since early 2003 and then reselling them at a profit.
Similar suits have been filed against resellers in Illinois and Texas and officials with RMG Technologies Inc. of Steubenville, Ohio. RMG allegedly orchestrated the ticket purchases using automated devices that allowed users to sidestep Ticketmaster security measures and ticket purchase limits, according to the lawsuit.
Since 2003, according to the lawsuits, resellers in the three states bought nearly 120,000 tickets through Ticketmaster and then resold them. Ticketmaster said other unnamed individuals may have purchased large quantities of tickets in the same way.
Joseph Freeman , vice president and assistant general counsel for Ticketmaster in West Hollywood, Calif., which sells tickets on behalf of sports teams, theaters, and concert venues across the country, said the company's investigation is continuing.
"We as a company are committed on behalf of our clients to putting as many tickets as possible in to the hands of fans at face price," Freeman said.
The four Massachusetts resellers were identified by Ticketmaster as Cheryl, Thomas, Kelly, and Ryan Prior .
Joseph S. Provanzano , an attorney representing the Priors, said Cheryl and Thomas are divorced and Kelly and Ryan are their children. He said Cheryl and the children had no knowledge of the ticket purchases.
Provanzano said Thomas J. Prior has bought tickets in the past through Ticketmaster and resold some of them and used some of them himself. He was unsure how many tickets in all had been purchased and resold or at what prices.
"He's a guy in his home," Provanzano said. "When tickets go on sale, he hires people to come in and buy tickets."
Massachusetts officials said no one named Prior is licensed as a ticket reseller here. State law requires anyone in the business of reselling tickets to be licensed by the state and charge no more than $2 above face value, plus certain service and business expenses.
Provanzano indicated Prior may have used the RMG technology, but he said it merely speeds up the ticket-purchasing process. He said Ticketmaster has not been harmed.
"Ticketmaster has always been paid for every single ticket that has been purchased," he said. He noted Prior tried to return some tickets to Ticketmaster and the company refused to provide a refund.
Ticketmaster has security measures in place to block automated attacks on its ticketing system, but it acknowledges in the lawsuits that the measures don't always work.
One Ticketmaster security program requires a customer placing a ticket order to read a series of random characters partially obscured behind hash marks and then retype those characters into a box. The purpose of the program is to make sure the order is being placed by a person rather than a computer.
In its lawsuits, Ticketmaster said most automated devices cannot decipher and retype the random characters and therefore cannot complete a ticket transaction. But Ticketmaster said software "bots" developed by RMG can circumvent the security program, allowing ticket brokers to buy tickets much faster and in greater quantities than the general public.
"A customer can use multiple bots -- sometimes hundreds of them -- simultaneously to flood the Ticketmaster website with requests for tickets," Ticketmaster said in its lawsuit against RMG.
The lawsuit said RMG screens all of its customers carefully to make sure they won't alert Ticketmaster. Because of RMG's safety precautions, Ticketmaster said it took years to uncover the ticket-buying system.
"Ticketmaster is informed and believes that defendants have consulted with customers throughout the United States, including in California, to lend assistance in establishing or expanding the customers' illegal ticket-buying activities," the RMG lawsuit says.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
