WASHINGTON — When 10-year-old Kameron Schuler saw that a Hannah Montana show was coming to Baltimore, she begged for a special birthday present — tickets to the concert for her and a friend.
But 10 minutes after tickets went on sale on Ticketmaster.com, they already had been swept up and posted on ticket resale Web sites for considerably higher prices. So Kameron’s father ended up shelling out triple the original price for a pair of upper-level seats — paying $150 each.
Failed efforts to get face-value tickets for hot concerts and sporting events, like the World Series, are not uncommon — especially among the less technologically savvy who are more familiar with staking out a spot in front of a box office.
But the consumer outcry over online hijacking of huge blocks of these tickets for resale on Web sites, such as Stubhub.com for as much as 20 times face value, has led some states to pursue legislation and lawsuits targeting people who use special software to sidestep ticket sellers’ online security measures.