The Masters: Ticket Scheme Leads to Charges Against Offending Family
A family was recently charged in a ticket fraud scheme surrounding The Masters. They used stolen identities to obtain tickets, and would then sell them at a healthy profit.
Imagine being on a list to get into the Masters lottery for tickets, and never being able to get tickets. You scrape for years to afford tickets, and end up purchasing some second-hand.
Yes they were expensive, but it’s worth it, right? There are a ton of ticket re-seller sites for many sports. Sometimes, you have to go via back channels to get tickets, and end up paying a premium because of the low availability and high demand for the tickets.
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A family from Texas has been taking advantage of this for many years, using stolen identities since 2013 to obtain tickets via the Masters ticket lottery system. Once they got these tickets, they would resell them to obtain a fairly large profit.
Stephen Michael Freeman, his sister, and their parents were charged with multiple counts. Freeman received the bulk of the charges, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and was also charged with aggravated identity theft. His parents and sister were charged, but to a lesser degree, only being charged with conspiracy.
Their system for doing so wasn’t too complicated. It involved getting a hold of a bulk mailing list, and using those names to enter into the ticket lottery. Then, they would create email addresses for each of the accounts, which they controlled while assuming the identity of the names provided.
Unfortunately, there are always those that look to seek profit in illegal and illegitimate ways. Luckily, Freeman and his family were caught, with those charges being handed out in a District court in Augusta on April 22nd.
It’s understandable that people go through back channels to find tickets sometimes, especially for sold-out events. The risk is always there that they may be illegitimate, which is part of the reason the deal might seem good. With The Masters, this is the only option for some people, as it is so hard to get tickets for the event.
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Hopefully the coverage that has reached this story is enough to keep people from doing this in the future. If the Freeman group ends up getting a harsh sentence, it would be good for anyone looking to get tickets in the future, knowing that they are even more likely to be legit. If anything, it is a reminder to always purchase tickets from a certified source.