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Watch Out For Absurdly Expensive Counterfeit <em>Hamilton</em> Tickets
By
Scott Heins
Published Jan 17, 2016
Modified Jan 17, 2016
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Joan Marcus
By
Scott Heins
Published Jan 17, 2016
Modified Jan 17, 2016
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If you're planning to hit up any in-demand spectacle, whether it's the Super Bowl or a Bruce Springsteen concert or New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square, you have to be on the lookout for scalpers selling fake tickets at massive mark-up prices (and also blatant "idiot" thieves). This warning goes double for those trying to see Hamilton, the hit musical that retells the story of America's earliest days through the lens of racial nuance and rap.
Tickets for the musical are going for hundreds—even thousands—of dollars on sites like StubHub, and with so many people desperate to see the show, some grifters are selling counterfeit tickets and making off with theatre-lovers' hard-earned cash.
The Times write about Jason, a man who was duped into paying hundreds for false Hamilton tickets through a Craigslist sale. Jason met a man who claimed to have been gifted a pair of tickets after he and his fiancee had already seen the show, and happily paid $600 for a Ticketmaster envelope. The seller, "Dan," even included a receipt.
But the story has a not-so-nice, and not-so-surprising, ending: Jason told the paper that when showtime came, he realized the tickets he had purchased were for January 2nd, 2015. He and his wife (along with another woman scammed through Craigslist) were not allowed in. The Richard Rodgers Theater box office treasurer Fred Santore Jr. told the Times "in his 34 years there this was the first time he had seen “any counterfeit tickets to a show."
"Since August, about five times a week, the theater must turn away people bearing fake tickets," the paper reported. Still, the police currently do not track reports of Hamilton counterfeits, and Craigslist does not assist those who have been scammed.
Gothamist editor Rebecca Fishbein was lucky enough to have real tickets to Hamilton when she saw the show last month. When asked what she would have done, had the tickets turned out to be fake, she said "I'm not saying I would have jumped in front of a taxi but there would have been a moment of consideration."
Tagged
broadway
fake tickets
hamilton
lin-manuel miranda
musical
scalpers
Scott Heins
Scott Heins is a freelance photo and video journalist based in New York City, and a frequent contributor to Gothamist + WNYC. His work often centers around labor rights, housing, and policing. In 2018-2019 he traveled to four states while covering a wave of public school teachers strikes, with work featured in The New York Times, The Intercept, Getty Images, Splinter, and Bloomberg Photos. Scott is a dues-paying member of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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