Eagles Fan Falls Victim to Facebook Ticket Scam

A Delaware County man was scammed while trying to purchase tickets to the Philadelphia Eagles home opener.

EJ Brady of Havertown said he generally buys tickets for the Eagles' first home game of the season from a friend. When he couldn't do that this year, Brady found a Facebook group called "Eagles Tickets.!!! Buying and Selling Exchange." 

Brady thought the group was the real deal, so he messaged a user of the group, who claimed to have tickets for Thursday's game for sale for $300 each. Before he went through with his purchase, Brady asked a group administrator to ensure he was working with a verified seller.

"He told me the guy's legit," Brady told Action News 6. "So, I sent him over the $600, and then he tells me like an hour later that he couldn't divide up the tickets."

Through a Facebook message to Brady, the seller said he was having trouble separating the four tickets he had to the game. Brady said he once again asked a group administrator, who assured him the seller was not scamming him. In the end, Brady used Apple Cash to send the seller $1,000 to receive four tickets.

He never got them. When he attempted to communicate with the group administrator and the seller, they both ignored and blocked Brady, leaving him without his money and the tickets.

Brady reported the situation to Facebook and was told the social media site wasn't aware of any fraudulent activity associated with this particular page. He also filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

When contacted about the situation by Action News 6, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said it has "received no such complaints on the Facebook group."

Venkat Margapuri, an assistant professor of computing sciences at Villanova University, cautioned people about purchasing tickets from reputable sources. He shared the following red flags:

To avoid scams, people should buy their tickets from reputable official sellers like Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, or Vivid Seats, Margapuri said. Paying with a credit card when purchasing through less regulated platforms like Facebook can help with disputing charges if needed.