beware ticket scammers that DM you
i've always had really good experiences with people in this subreddit but this time i burned myself. i was looking to buy a ticket to boris and left a message in someone's thread. someone else ended up reaching out to me in a DM asking if i was interested.
i won't really say i did my due diligence in terms of protecting myself. i ignored several red flags (multiple attempts at payments because zelle would flag it as a scam), but i chalked it up to fate since i understood there was a high likelihood it was a scam and let it play out.
https://i.imgur.com/2svL44C.png
basically this conversation moved to discord and we decided on zelle as the payment processor since i wasn't sure how shotgun transfer worked. he said he would prefer for me to send half -> transfer ticket -> send other half (green flag) and i was happier with that over full amount at once.
red flag #1 weird phone number and a weird request to not add a memo because it might get flagged (signals this person does this a lot)
red flag #2 weird request to use another weird phone number
red flag #3 requests to send ticket directly to email
red flag #4 fake email that looked kinda real. links aren't clickable, says 1 of 4 tickets. email came from someone with a totally different name
red flag #5 request to use another weird number from a third person.
anyways, don't be a dingus like me unless you're cool with missing an event and donating $55 to a scammer.
● be wary of people that dm you (because they might be banned from posting in this subreddit for scamming)
● a cursory google of their username + reddit is probably good
● if payment processors are telling you it might be a scam, it probably is
● refusal to use normal identifiers like IG and lack of a description of a real person behind their profile
my partner was working and none of my friends wanted to go, so i was planning on flying solo for the first time in a long while. i knew all the signs were there but i let it play out because of that anyway 🤦♂️. hope you guys can have a laugh at me and avoid this happening to you!