Myriam Estrella was excited to take her partner to a Montreal Canadiens game in her hometown on Tuesday night. But when he checked his account, his tickets were gone.

The tickets had been claimed by someone else, an account she did not recognize.

Estrella, who now lives in Florida, complained to Ticketmaster for help, but says nothing happened until she started voicing her concerns on her popular TikTok account.

“I felt at a very, very privileged moment to be able to see a million people see that story and say, ‘Wow, this is not right,'” he told CBC News on Thursday.

“Not everyone has a million people to be able to hold a company accountable.”

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While tickets have disappeared from some event attendees’ Ticketmaster accounts and the company has reported data breaches, Ticketmaster says theft and fraud remain less of a problem than in the days of paper tickets.

He was able to get into the game, but said it seemed like it was an effort by the company to save face. He said it left him with the feeling that the company doesn’t care about a bigger problem: the theft of bills from its accounts.

The Ticketmaster TikTok account commented on their videos and said the tickets had been restored. But Estrella is not the only Ticketmaster customer who buys tickets only to see them disappear.

“I was angry, but sad not only for myself, who fought like crazy during the week, but also for my friends, knowing that they trusted me. In a way I failed them,” said Fredericke Lapierre, recounting her own experience of fighting against the ticket giant. for the lost concert tickets.

Lapierre and his friends still attended the show, but had to get new seats, which cost hundreds more.

“What’s sad is that now I’m afraid to buy tickets on Ticketmaster,” Lapierre said.

Ticketmaster data breach is connected, expert says

In July, Ticketmaster sent an email to customers saying there had been a data breach first identified in May. At the time, he said that the stolen data may have included credit card and contact information.

Ticketmaster said this week that no passwords were exposed in the breach and CBC News could not confirm a link between the breach and the missing tickets.

However, technology columnist Carmi Levy says there is a connection. He said scammers can match leaked data, such as email addresses, with previously leaked passwords to see which accounts they can access.

“(They) try to log into multiple accounts, including Ticketmaster. Once they log in, it’s like they’re logging in as the owner of this account,” Levy explained.

“They can then use that access to sell any tickets in that account, pretending to be the rightful owner of that account.”

He said this is a common problem that persists for months, if not years, after a data breach. He noted that these scams are happening more frequently and that people should be more prepared.

The trick, he said, is to log into your Ticketmaster account and first change your password. Then, add two-step verification and use encrypted password managers to keep accounts more secure and reduce the risk of data theft.

“Stop using the same passwords on all these different accounts,” Levy said. “That makes it incredibly easy. You’re basically giving the master key to cybercriminals once they break into one.”

Ticketmaster says technology is improving

As for Estrella, she said she still doesn’t know how the tickets were stolen. He said Ticketmaster told him the theft was related to his personal email account, but he said he regularly uses new email addresses.

Ticketmaster says its innovations in online ticket sales have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicate PDF files.

“Having that digital history is also how we can investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets,” the statement said.

“The best way fans can protect themselves is by setting a strong, unique password for all accounts, especially their personal email, which is where we often see security issues originate.”

Scammers are looking for new tricks across industries, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, Ticketmaster said in its statement, adding that it is “constantly investing in new security improvements to protect fans.”