The Bexar County Sheriff’s office is investigating what could be a widespread operation to scam fans of the San Antonio Spurs and other NBA teams with expensive counterfeit tickets being sold on Craigslist.
Investigators believe the counterfeiters may be ripping off Houston and Dallas fans with the same bogus tickets that they tricked fans into buying for Spurs games.
"The Spurs are a hot team. People are willing to pay good money to go to them," said Bexar Co. Sheriff's Office spokesman James Keith. He added that floor seats for Spurs games can run into hundreds of dollars, and with NBA finals fast approaching, the cost of the crimes could be expected to increase dramatically.
Keith said they haven’t caught the suspects yet, but they have some good leads from Spurs fans who so far have lost a total of more than $12,000.
"What we're operating on right now is victims that have come to us saying, 'Hey, here's my paper ticket. This thing is bogus and I got turned away.'
"We were able to utilize surveillance footage whenever people had made interactions with these guys, and that's where we're connecting the dots," Keith said.
Investigators believe the men are operating out of the Dallas area, although surveillance video and witness accounts place them at several locations around San Antonio.
Keith said it’s nearly impossible for a ticket buyer to find the flaws in the fake tickets, but some may have blurry bar codes. Ticket holders looking forward to seeing the game most often don’t have any idea they’ve been "had" - until the ticket taker at the game scans the bar code and turns them away from the gate.
