A woman who tried to buy tickets to an upcoming Montreal concert by pop star Pink on the web site Kijiji is now out $520.
Celine Simard says she was on the popular web site three weeks ago, and came across a posting offering two tickets of Pink's March 23 show at the Bell Centre, which the poster was selling for $290 each.
The tickets, it turns out, were fakes.
As soon as she met the seller to make the transaction, she noticed something was off about them. Later, she logged back on to Kijiji, and noticed the ad hadn't been taken down.
She then had a friend of hers respond to the ad, and the seller agreed to sell to her as well.
Simard then confronted the seller, a man named 'Yannick', a second time. When confronted by the Simard that time, 'Yannick' denied everything and fled.
The ad was then taken down, and he apparently no longer answers his cell phone.
A similar scam last summer left dozens of Coldplay fans out in the cold.
The woman has filed a complaint with Montreal police, who recommend that people buy their concert tickets directly from the promoters, or if they're dealing with a ticket broker, to make sure there's an option to pay by credit card or via PayPal — so that there would be a record of the transaction.
Another suggestion would be to meet the seller at a place where the authenticity of the tickets can be verified — such as the place where the event is actually taking place.