This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced in a press release Friday afternoon an investigation into Pure Tonic Marketing and Ticket Squeeze for allegedly scamming customers trying to buy tickets to events at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium. Nessel was alerted to the potential scam after receiving a complaint from the University Musical Society, a performing arts presenter affiliated with the University, which sells official Hill Auditorium tickets on its website.
The University previously won a domain dispute against Pure Tonic Marketing, an international company based in Seychelles, after they advertised tickets to performances at Hill Auditorium through a fraudulent web address. Pure Tonic Marketing was forced to redirect the fraudulent web address to the UMS official website. Following this domain dispute, however, the web address annarborconcerts.com, run by Ticket Squeeze, has emerged and begun engaging in the same scam.
According to the press release, the scam involved redirecting customers from the seemingly official website to the Ticket Squeeze website and reselling the tickets at a significantly higher price.
“One consumer, believing he was purchasing tickets from an official source, reported paying $1,263.95 for two tickets to a Berlin Philharmonic performance through the website,” the press release read. “The same tickets were listed at $175 each through the official UMS website.”
The press release stated that Nessel is currently working to identify the operator of the Ticket Squeeze website and determine whether other venues have also been targeted.
“While the Hill Auditorium was the focus of the initial complaint, other entertainment venues may have also been targeted by the alleged scheme,” the press release read. “Through this investigation, the Department of Attorney General hopes to learn whether additional imposter websites have been used by these entities to deceive consumers statewide.”
In the press release, Sara Billmann, UMS vice president of marketing and communications, said ticket scams are incredibly harmful to consumers and industry workers.
“The rise of ticket resellers who purchase tickets solely for the purpose of making money off of unsuspecting customers has been a scourge in the performing arts industry,” Billmann said. “In addition to the direct harm caused to customers by predatory secondary market pricing and absurdly high fees, nonprofit arts organizations are also seriously impacted, both financially and reputationally.”
Summer News Editor Alyssa Tisch can be reached at tischaa@umich.edu.
