Hundreds of People Bought Hamilton Tickets They Won’t Get

The Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha is warning ticket buyers of the 'speculative ticket' scam deceiving thousands.

After a multi-month investigation the RI Attorney General's office has found that there are some seriously unfair practices happening in the world of online ticket sales that are scamming many Rhode Islanders out of money.

The investigation was into speculative tickets, which are basically tickets that don't really exist yet but can be sold online.

It's like you buy the promise of a future ticket, that then never really arrives. But you really pay.

And the number of Hamilton speculative tickets was through the roof.

Over 4,000 speculative tickets were sold to the Providence Performing Arts Center show last July when the show's impending arrival was first announced.

PPAC themselves did not actually offer tickets until this past March.

Meaning some people bought tickets a year ago in hopes that when they really went on sale the online ticket site would get a pair for them.

And many are finding those tickets don't exist.

PPAC only seats 3,100, so already 900 tickets that could never exist got sold. And those buyers got scammed.

Plus the price to hold a ticket this way can cost you up to three times the ticket's face value.

It all sounds crazy!

So the RI Attorney General is cracking down on the practice. They are making sellers disclose if a ticket is speculative or not and adding severe penalties to those that sell these shady tickets in the first place.

But it's still a bit buyer beware out there. Make sure you know what you are buying on these sites, because the shady sellers are everywhere and it's not just tickets to musicals they are scamming people with.