$25 Million Online Ticket Scam busted



They should get a criminal investigation into Ticketmaster for explaining WHAT those $7-$20 "convenience fees" on each ticket really are on top of the Ticketmaster "surcharge fee" that they get for themselves already.

"We're going to conveniently charge you $7-$20 more... because we want to."
 
It was pretty smart, they outsourced the work to a Bulgarian, he probably didn't see a dime except for his flat fee. And if they hadn't gotten so greedy, they'd probably still be running this little operation.
 
After reading that article in full, its good they arrested them... because for a group of guys that had that much power and the fact that they bought so many "prime tickets" in the first place at face value and still only made a measly $25M, then they deserve prison and fines, but not for hacking, instead for not making as much as they could have!!!

They should have made $250,000,000 instead!!! Why the hell didn't they mark up the prices like regular brokers do?!!? That's probably what got them ratted out and caught in the first place. FOOLS!

PS - If they paid for the tickets, and didn't break any laws, how is it fraud?
 
PS - If they paid for the tickets, and didn't break any laws, how is it fraud?
It's called property rights (e.g. by contract law). I haven't read TicketMaster's TOS, but to me it seems that this is what the case should be about. Besides, there is more to property rights and contracts than what is explicitly mentioned in a TOS.
 
Ticketmaster should be sued for being a monopoly rip off.

My sister gets 50% off all Ticketmaster tickets just because of her place of employment... fucking bitches.
 
Using someone elses computer system (or website) for something other than its intended purpose is a federal offense. I learned that the hard way :P

They did break laws.

I reread the article in case I missed it but I didn't see that they were using other peoples computers as the bot launchers. If they did, fuck em, throw em in jail. But if they had a whole mess of 1u servers and IP addresses (heavyt I'm looking in your direction) then I don't see the problem.
 
I really don't mean to hijack the thread but I can't ignore the irony.

These guys build a system to operate faster than the market and and are looking at long jail terms but if a bunch of fucking bankers do it they get billions in gov't bailout. Flash trading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although somewhat different...well played sir.

But that is also why regulators are looking to shut that shit down since HFT doesnt really add anything to the market and instead makes the market less efficient.
 
I reread the article in case I missed it but I didn't see that they were using other peoples computers as the bot launchers. If they did, fuck em, throw em in jail. But if they had a whole mess of 1u servers and IP addresses (heavyt I'm looking in your direction) then I don't see the problem.

You're counting on a jury of people like this to distinguish the difference between captcha breaking and "hacking", a bot network vs. a private network, breaking TOS vs. doing something illegal etc though:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ]YouTube - What is a Browser?[/ame]

I wish there was an "ignorance clause" for a right to a fair trial. I hope they get off, unless there is more to this story than what is in this article.
 
You're counting on a jury of people like this to distinguish the difference between captcha breaking and "hacking", a bot network vs. a private network, breaking TOS vs. doing something illegal etc

Touche. And I agree with you, the defendants' lawyers are going to have a tough job ahead of them educating a jury or judge on the nuanced differences in automating captchas vs hacking.
 
Sounds like they used the site as presented to the public. It's not their fault ticket master has a faulty system people can easily jump in front of the line. Maybe they should just fix the problem on their site and put these guys out of business.

I don't really like ticketmaster they are a bunch of crooks imo.