BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Two members of Bills Mafia tell me their tickets to upcoming Buffalo Bills games have been stolen and possibly lost forever.
One of those Bills Mafia members is Sarah Cooper. She lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, and told me she got two tickets for the November 10 Bills game in Indianapolis against the Colts. The tickets were a birthday gift for her 11-year-old son to attend his first Bills regular season game.
"He's just heartbroken. I will go to the end of the earth to get these tickets back but, I don't know what else to do," Sarah Cooper said.
"I think I was going through TikTok actually and I got an email notification that said my tickets were being transferred to Abigail and Madilyn. I was like... no?" Cooper explained over Zoom.
By the time she could stop the transfer, the person had accepted the tickets on the other end. She immediately called Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster told Cooper it would take her request to the fraud department and said it could take up to three to five days longer since the event is not until November 10.
She said Ticketmaster told her they would either get her tickets back, get comparable tickets, or a refund. I reached out to Ticketmaster via phone and email and have yet to hear back.
Note: A Ticketmaster spokesperson sent me a statement Friday afternoon stating:
Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets. The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate. Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.
The story continues, however. Cooper said that same day she found her seats on StubHub. They were listed for the same price she bought them for.
"They are still currently on there. I have contacted StubHub maybe three or four times now and explained these tickets were stolen. Can you take them off? Can you do anything? They said no," Cooper told me.
I reached out to StubHub via email and was told they are looking into this situation.
Note: StubHub sent me a statement Friday evening stating:
Ms. Cooper purchased tickets for the Colts-Bills matchup on November 10, 2024 on Ticketmaster and said the tickets were transferred out of her account. We do not have any insight into this transfer since it occurred outside of our platform.
Since Ticketmaster’s resolution of the issue, the seller has removed the tickets from StubHub's platform. Our team is currently investigating the seller's account, and if any violations are found, we will take appropriate action.
The transfer in the Ticketmaster app could only have occurred if someone accessed the buyer’s Ticketmaster account to retrieve and transfer the tickets, likely due to the account being compromised in the previously reported Ticketmaster data breach.
We encourage customers affected to contact Ticketmaster directly to resolve these matters.
Meanwhile, something similar happened to a woman in Muleshoe, Texas, on Thursday.
Baylee Helton said she and her husband plan to travel to Buffalo for the game against the Miami Dolphins this weekend. She told me she spent more than $1,000 on their two tickets.
"They are third-row seats," Helton said. "The third-row seats are kind of between the 35-yard and 40-yard line on the Bills side. Because to me, if I'm going to travel all the way to New York, I want to have good seats."
She said Ticketmaster told her she could get her tickets back, in time for game day.
"Of course, with the game being 72 hours away, I'm panicking. There's no way I am going to get these back in time," Helton said over Zoom. "I've been planning this trip for over a year. It's the first NFL game that we've ever been to. It's the weekend of my birthday. I was looking forward to it, and now I might not get to be there. I might get there and they might tell me, sorry we can't refund your tickets."
While Helton hopes for the best, Cooper's story has a happy ending.
Just about four hours after I spoke with her, she got her tickets returned to her via Ticketmaster so she and her son will be in the stands to cheer on the Bills in Indianapolis.
Update: Friday morning, Baylee Helton notified me that her tickets were returned via Ticketmaster.
Should you ever be in a situation where your Ticketmaster tickets are stolen, click here. For StubHub, click here.
