WESTCHESTER COUNTY (WABC) — A Westchester family waited months for a concert, only to have their tickets hacked directly from their ticket app.
The show was a Green Day concert in Queens earlier this month.
But days before the concert they had neither a ticket nor a refund, so they asked Nina Pineda and 7 On Your Side for help.
What happens if the tickets were there one minute and gone the next?
The kicker is that Ticketmaster was involved in a major security breach a few months ago, leaving customers wondering why their requests for help only led to obstacles.
“I finally bought the ticket and thought, ‘I’m going!'” said Debra Cunningham, a huge Green Day fan.
A Green Day fan since middle school, Cunningham wanted to finally see her favorite band live for the first time. She spent over $1,100 on four tickets at CitiField.
“There were good front row seats in the first section,” she said.
Cunningham had purchased the seats in November, but received a message last month, a few weeks before the August 5 concert, that her password for the Ticketmaster app had been changed.
“So I logged in and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I couldn’t click on it,” she said.
Her account had been hacked. Cunningham was a hopeless case.
“It says here that your tickets were claimed by ‘and SF.’ Is that even a real name? That’s what I said, it’s not even a real name,” she said.
Fake name, true crime: A group of cybercriminals claimed to have stolen the personal information of 500 million Ticketmaster customers. The company sent letters in July warning of the data theft, which allegedly occurred between April and May, urging users to monitor their accounts and offering free credit monitoring.
The Cunninghams didn’t know if the hacker played a role, but when they and their family tried to get help for their missing tickets, they got none.
“They kept telling me there was nothing they could do,” Cunningham said.
To their surprise, they saw that their stolen tickets were for sale. Section 123, Seat 912, Row 1 was for sale on Ticketmaster!
“I thought it was impossible not to click on something,” Cunningham said.
7 On Your Side contacted the largest ticket seller in the country and 90 minutes later their Boulevard of Broken Dreams did a U-turn. Ticketmaster was able to recover the stolen tickets just in time.
“Thank you, 7 On Your Side!” said Cunningham.
Cunningham and her family were finally able to see the Saviors Tour.
Ticketmaster sent 7 On Your Side a statement saying:
“We are pleased to report that we helped get Mrs. Cunningham’s tickets back so she could attend the concert with her family. At Ticketmaster, we take account security very seriously and take advanced measures to protect these fans’ tickets. We advise her and other fans to protect their account with a strong password that is not used anywhere else, just as you would treat your bank account.”
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