‘Hundreds’ Of Credit Cards Used In Streisand Fraud

LOS ANGELES (August 31, 2006) — Hundreds of stolen credit card numbers were used to purchase more than 1,000 Barbra Streisand concert tickets that ended up being put for sale on the Internet, Ticketmaster officials said Wednesday.

Sean Moriarty, Ticketmaster’s president and chief operating officer, said the company discovered the fraud through its monitoring of Internet transactions, but declined to elaborate.

The finding compelled the company on Tuesday to invalidate the tickets purchased with the stolen credit card numbers.

Cities hosting shows with canceled tickets include Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Sunrise, Fla., Auburn Hills, Mich., Chicago, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J.

Fans who inadvertently bought an invalidated ticket were left with little option but to contact the Web sites where they made their purchase and see if they qualified for a refund.

“The responsibility to make good on this situation is left with these secondary market sites,” Moriarty said. “Unfortunately, it’s not the responsibility of Ticketmaster or Barbra Streisand or their team, or frankly beyond our ability to address to set it right.”

The rise of online commerce among individual computer users combined with rising demand and prices for hot concert tickets has fueled second-party selling.

“There’s never been more of an opportunity for dishonest people to dupe fans,” Moriarty said.