Big games, like today’s Carolina-Clemson game, are more attractive for fans … and scams

Johns Island resident Greg Dixon said the process of getting tickets was easier than the actual decision to attend today’s South Carolina at Clemson football game. After all, there’s lots to consider, ranging from expenses to budgeting time for an event that’s roughly a four-hour drive away.

But he and his wife, recent transplants from college football-crazy Ohio, wanted to indulge in the state’s premier gridiron rivalry. So they committed.

Dixon broke out his cellphone, pulled up a couple of websites for ticket brokers and locked down two seats. According to Ticketmaster, space in the upper reaches of Clemson’s Memorial Stadium was still available starting at around $170; some lower-level tickets could be had for about $225.

Dixon didn’t say exactly how much he paid other than “more that some, less than others.” The entire process took only a few minutes.

“Yeah, it was easy,” Dixon, 34, said. “Actually, it seemed almost too easy. But I’m sure things will be OK when we get there.”

His confidence is rooted in previous online ticket-buying experiences. Because the reality is that the days of strolling up to a street corner and getting tickets before kickoff are long gone.

There are now myriad secondary-market brokers reselling tickets from the initial purchaser and charging both parties a fee for each transaction. It’s become a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide over the past two decades. Research firm Technavio projects the market to swell by $132.1 billion over the next four years, with North America to account for 44 percent of that growth.

And, considering the amount of money involved, that presumably means there are many checkpoints to ensure transactions go smoothly. Dixon’s recent experience backs that up.

Still, it’s a tempting carrot dangling for crooks, especially when coveted events are involved, such as a Taylor Swift concert or a hot Broadway show.

Or, closer to home, the renewal of a 128-year-old rivalry.

Bigger stakes

According to StubHub, this edition of South Carolina vs. Clemson is the No. 4 in-demand game for the final week of college football’s regular season, eclipsed only by the likes of Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Texas A&M and Alabama-Auburn — iconic rivalries all. That positioning keeps with trends already experienced by both Clemson and USC; the Gamecocks have jumped from being the No. 27 in-demand team ticket-wise to start the season to 16th, while Clemson has gone from 22nd to 19th.

At stake today for the 12th-ranked Tigers and No. 15 Gamecocks? Possibly a College Football Playoff berth for one, maybe even both if things work out a certain way. It’s the first time in the CFP’s 11-season history the schools are chasing spots at the same time.

Bolstered stakes mean even more interest and more demand for one of the coveted 81,500 tickets to gain entry into Memorial Stadium. The large majority of those — around 56,500 — are snatched up way in advance by season ticket holders. Approximately 3,000 tickets account for the patrons in the 96 suites and club-level sections of Death Valley. 

So every seat is pretty much accounted for, yet that doesn’t stop scammers. Exploiting a fan’s passion for their team is low-hanging fruit for con artists.

Indeed, ticket scams have existed for as long as fees have been charged to attend events. The difference in 2024 is a fake ticket is no longer a well-crafted, handheld counterfeit that’s only exposed by on-site experts or when two people show up declaring ownership of the same seat.

Thanks to a rise in digital sales, Clemson University police don’t see as many people standing outside the gates claiming to have seats to sell. And the school advises that its tickets are always mobile/electronic.

“If you purchase a paper ticket,” Clemson spokesman Jeff Kallin said, “it’s likely not something we provide.”

No paper tickets — check. Yet phonies, or at least the promise of a ticket that doesn’t exist, remain an issue.

“With the switch to digital tickets, ticket scalping at football games has not really been an issue,” Clemson spokesman Davis Simpson said. “One area that we have seen a rise in is ticket scams. For example, a student tries to buy a ticket from someone on a social media platform, like GroupMe or Facebook Marketplace, sends the money and then never receives a ticket.”

It’s become such a popular digital scalping technique that the university issued a formal warning in September. Since then, the department has received several reports of students paying for tickets they never received.

The phonies aren’t limited to the big games, either.

Constant monitoring

A Summerville woman was arrested in August 2023 for operating a yearslong scam that followed the blueprint Simpson outlined.

Abbryanna Dutill McGowan pleaded guilty to obtaining property under false pretenses after engaging with Clemson football fans looking for tickets on Facebook. McGowan would send screenshots captured from an official ticket broker as proof of possession and then barter a price.

Several duped buyers electronically sent her thousands of dollars on the promise they’d get their tickets, but McGowan would then vanish. Her operation spread out across South Carolina, as well as parts of North Carolina, Virginia and other states. Mount Pleasant police picked up McGowan in 2023, though people continue coming forward saying she ripped them off.

Such instances both empower the legit ticket brokers who tout their credibility, but also task them with needing to constantly prove their reliability.

For example: Stubhub is one of the world’s largest marketplaces, moving more than 10 million tickets a month or a rate of 1.3 tickets sold per second. But the number it leans on is that “less than 0.02 percent of people have an issue.” And that “issue” doesn’t necessarily mean something nefarious has happened, but might be a fixable technical snag such as a wonky barcode or QR code.

“We always tell people to make sure that they are buying from a trusted source, to avoid buying on social media,” said Joseph Bocanegra, the head of Global Customer Services Operations for StubHub. “It’s risky, especially from people you certainly don’t know.

“Technology has really enabled consumers to make more intelligent purchases. I think that increases demand because now you have a lot more people, not just the people that show up on game day hoping to get tickets, you have people, you know, that maybe are within an hour or two commuting distance that are now able to look online to see if they can get a good ticket.”

That’s what Josh Williams wanted to find.

A 20-year-old Charlestonian, online ticket brokers and digital tickets are all he knows. He says he avoids social media to make purchases and doesn’t fret about the legitimacy of reputable ticker brokers. Similar to Dixon, he explored attending today’s game in Clemson by seeking enough data to make an informed decision.

But, unlike his older counterpart, the ROI didn’t tilt in favor of him making the drive to the Upstate. Rather, he’ll watch the game like the vast majority of the population: on television.

“I’ve never been to that stadium and would love to check it out,” Williams said. “And I’d go if they weren’t (selling for) $150 for nosebleeds (seats). I’m definitely not paying that much to drive that far. No way.”