Two weeks ago I visited the website of an entertainment venue here in Alberta, Canada to purchase tickets for an event taking place in two months. The website uses Ticketmaster.ca so I started looking for seats. At some point my internet browser was re-directed to a third party seller (i.e. ticket scalper) without my knowledge. Before I completed the purchase, I noticed the price showing in U.S. dollars. Big red flag so I backed out of the transaction and closed my browser. I was so relieved thinking I narrowly avoided a scam. A short time later, I received a notification from PayPal and another from my bank that $402.30 CND had been charged to my Visa for tickets worth $258.75 CDN. I immediately notified PayPal but so far I've gotten nowhere. This unauthorized third party seller (scalper) or "merchant" (as PayPal calls them) added $69.03 USD in unidentifiable "service fees" and $9.95 USD in "shipping fees" for electronic tickets which I did not receive. At PayPal's urging, I tried contacting the merchant several times to request a refund. They refused citing their no refund policy. PayPal has (so far) refused to help. The merchant is now sending dozens of emails urging me to click links to "accept" my tickets. One email suggested, as a form of resolution, that I accept the tickets then allow another unauthorized third party re-sell them on my behalf. Let me get this straight. They're trying to get their victims to create more victims by perpetuating further fraud? I have also completed fraud reports with IC3.gov (USA) and the CAFC (Canada). If you're reading this and you've been taken by this scam, please report it to law enforcement. Since PayPal doesn't seem to want to protect their buyers, we need to work with police to protect ourselves.
