The fraudsters are selling fake passes and tickets at hotels, coffee houses, and places near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
With Bangalore all geared to host its first match of the 5th edition of the IPL on Saturday, fake tickets are on the rise. The fraudsters are selling fake passes and tickets at hotels, coffee houses, and places near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The starting point are social networking sites. Shabaaz Kaze, a software professional who purchased a fake tickets, said, “These people have been operating through Facebook. They first post about the availability of tickets on walls, and then the tickets are just a call away. Once someone gets in touch with these people, customers are informed that the tickets can be purchased from a number of places. I bought tickets for the McDowells Best View Stand.
“I and my friends were duped. We figured out that the tickets were fake after I compared our tickets with those of a friend. We had bought them on Brigade Road,” he said.
The mad rush, however, is for complimentary passes as they provide the best view.
DNA met two of these black marketers posing as customers and found them in possession of more then 50 complimentary passes each. What remains a mystery is how they could get hold of passes when BBMP corporators have been fighting hard to get their hands on 400-odd passes for themselves.
Akhil Sharma, one of the blackmarketers when assured that 10 passes would be purchased, said, “You should pick up only the complimentary passes since the tickets available in the black market are fake.” Ironically, genuine tickets are still available at the official counter.
“Many were told that the website selling the tickets—ticketgenie.com—was vulnerable since people had complained during the 2010 edition of IPL that the site had been unable to deliver tickets to online customers. They had also faced problems getting refunds from the company. This was the reason why people were avoiding purchasing tickets from ticketgenie.com, and were instead falling prey to the fraudsters, Shabaz said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}