Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning sports fans to be extremely cautious when doing business with Ex Sport Group, a Missouri ticket broker that apparently took $5,200 from a Rhode Island man but never delivered promised tickets to this year’s Super Bowl.

“I was destroyed,” said the retired businessman, a New England Patriots fan. He said he has tried to contact the company’s owner, Wendell Southerland, without success.  He said dozens of phone calls, emails and text messages were unanswered. “Words cannot describe the anger and frustration,” he said.

The case is among several across the country in which football fans say they were duped by Craigslist ads for Super Bowl tickets. Two friends from Boston said they paid a broker $2,800 for two tickets after seeing an ad on the website. The tickets turned out to be counterfeit.  An Indianapolis woman told police she was cheated out of $2,000 when four tickets advertised on Craigslist were never delivered.

Last fall, BBB warned consumers about World Series ticket scams involving Craigslist and other websites.  And earlier this month, an Ohio couple was sentenced to prison for using Craigslist to steal more than $200,000 from hundreds of victims for nonexistent tickets to the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and numerous concerts.

In the Ex Sport Group case, the Rhode Island businessman said he sent payment for the tickets via FedEx and arranged to meet Southerland in an Indianapolis hotel lobby on the Friday before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl, but Southerland never appeared.  The fan, who had flown to Indianapolis with his son, said he spent thousands more for replacement tickets to the game.

The man said he had seen Southerland’s ad for Super Bowl ticket and hotel packages on Craigslist and was suspicious of the offer at first.  But Southerland convinced him through emails and phone calls that the ticket packages were legitimate.  Southerland pointed out that Ex Sport Group was registered with the Missouri secretary of state.

BBB tried several times to contact Southerland, with no success.  Recently, BBB representatives visited Southerland’s home on Jackson Street in Vinita Park, Mo.  A resident of the house acknowledged that Southerland worked as a sports ticket seller, but said he was not at home. Southerland did not respond to a BBB request for information left at the home.

Kim States, BBB President, said that consumers who pay unfamiliar, third-party brokers for tickets may end up with nothing.  “If you don’t know them and haven’t heard of them, you probably shouldn’t trust them,” she said.

The Patriots fan said the experience ruined what should have been a once-in-a-lifetime event. He said a text message he sent to Southerland summed up his frustration: “How can you do this to my son and me?”

The Missouri secretary of state shows that Ex Sport Group was registered in June 2008.  Southerland is (more…)

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning consumers to be on the alert for knock-off team jerseys, counterfeit memorabilia and phony game tickets.

“There are three good reasons not to buy counterfeit goods: theft, quality and security,” said Kim States, BBB President. “Counterfeit items are stolen goods. If you love your team, don’t buy a hat or jersey from someone who has stolen the team’s name and logo for their own profit. And counterfeit items are almost always more cheaply made, which means they won’t last as long as the real thing.”

But you may have an even bigger problem if you try to buy counterfeit memorabilia online. Several BBBs around the country have reported websites that don’t even have any merchandise to sell you…they just want your credit card number and personal information in order to steal your identity or drain your bank account. The best way to ensure you are getting official sports gear is to buy directly from the team or league websites, or from official vendors at the stadium.

Tickets for the big game can be an even bigger rip-off. Thousands of Super Bowl tickets are currently listed on Craigslist, but the site offers no guarantees of any kind and does not require identification of its listers. Buying in person isn’t always an improvement, as it’s gotten easier and easier for scammers to make fake tickets that look real.

So where can you turn? Sites such as Stub Hub (www.stubhub.com) guarantee your tickets’ authenticity. There were 2,800 tickets available as of yesterday, starting at $2,450 a piece. Ticketmaster (www.ticketexchangebyticketmaster.com) handles ticket exchanges for the NFL, and had over 800 tickets available as of yesterday, starting at $2,864.

In general, avoid scams by being skeptical of:

• Offers that sound “too good to be true”
• Pushy sales tactics
• Poor quality of merchandise (more…)