UNLPD sees ‘large spike’ in ticket scams for Husker football games

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – As excitement brews around the Husker football season, affordable tickets are becoming harder to find.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department said scammers are working hard to score on unsuspecting fans.

“We did see a very large spike in the number of ticket scams, especially on campus,” Capt. John Backer said. “And most of them have come down to what we think is a small group or even a single actor.”

Last weekend, there were about a dozen reports of people selling fake tickets online, according to Backer.

He said there are some ways you can detect these scammers.

The first is extremely low ticket prices.

“We even had some victims say, ‘I thought it was too good to be true, but I went ahead and did it anyway,'” Backer said.

Another red flag is if the seller uses inconsistent phone numbers or emails.

“For example, a scammer will use one phone number to communicate, negotiate prices, so forth,” Backer said. “And then they’ll switch to a different phone number to receive payment or they’ll switch an email to receive payment.”

According to Backer, this is part of the risk involved with online tickets nowadays.

“When used correctly, they’re incredibly efficient, they’re safe, they’re difficult to reproduce or counterfeit,” he said. “But the transfer of tickets is what gets problematic in how the scammers see an opportunity.”

He recommended fans buy tickets through the official Husker website or SeatGeek, which partners with UNL.

If you’re buying a ticket elsewhere, Backer said to be cautious.

And if you notice something that feels wrong, report it.

“Our hope, obviously is to identify who it was,” Backer said. “But with the nature of the mobile tickets, they could not even be in the United States, so it’s an uphill battle, but we’re willing to walk it.”