STORRS, Conn. (WTNH) — The University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball game tickets have become the hottest tickets across the state — drawing in both fans and even scammers.
“It’s ridiculous, and a lot of people are being scammed right now,” said Jon Restrapo, a University of Connecticut (UConn) senior.
After UConn unanimously ranked number one in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll this season, not only are most of the regular season games sold out, but the secondary online ticket market has also become red hot.
“A lot of people getting scammed like that, it’s not just for basketball it’s for everything, there are a lot of scalpers out there using third-party websites they seem real, but in reality they’re actually fake it’s hard to tell the difference between them,” said Angel Baba, a UConn junior.
Ticket prices for Saturday’s men’s basketball game against Villanova are as high as $3,689 a pair. Students said they’ve already encountered people selling fake tickets.
“You need a QR code in order to actually share and give your ticket to somebody else, but a lot of people are just saying hey send me money and I’ll give you the code, it doesn’t work like that,” Restrapo said.
UConn school officials said they’ve been warning students about possible scams.
“Like any other major purchase you make in life, make sure you know who you’re buying from, check it out, talk to other people, because you just never know,” said Mike Enright, UConn’s deputy spokesperson.
To get ahead of scammers, UConn partnered with the online ticket company Seat Geek.
“They are licensed by UConn, they’re registered by Uconn and people can buy and sell tickets to UConn games on Seat Geek it’s on her website it’s on her mobile app, with great comfort,” Enright said.
School officials tell students and fans to be careful who they’re buying tickets from, whether it’s in person or online, it’s better to be safe than sorry.