Scam Artists May Be Buying Up Justin Timberlake Concert Tickets In Pittsburgh

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- After his Super Bowl XLII appearance, Justin Timberlake is even hotter than ever.

And so are tickets to his June 1 concert at PPG Paints Arena.

Jennifer Bennett of Ingram is a long-time fan.

"One of those teenage screaming girls," she told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Monday, "and I think you never lose that when you become a fan, especially if somebody carries on."

The mother of four has been to all Timberlake's Pittsburgh concerts, except one, so the moment tickets went on sale for his June 1 concert she was online.

"Went on right when they opened and first couple times I tried to load it up, it kept saying, can't find -- no tickets available -- can't find anything," Bennett said. "[It was] a little confusing because I've never had that happen before, and then it started popping up with seats."

But the price was not the normal price.

"I saw some tickets on there as high as $8,000," she said.

Like many others, Bennett was the victim of scam artists who use sophisticated computer programs to buy up hundreds of tickets and resale them at outrageous prices.

Insiders call them ticket bots.

"It's basically a program that has a sort of algorithm that looks for a certain amount of tickets," says Jason Varnish, a ticketing professional with more than a dozen years in the entertainment. "It hits and tries to find as many open seats that are on that manifest, or that are on that event that are available to the public."

Knowing that these scam artists, scalpers, and these ticket bots are trying to buy up all the tickets before you can get one or two, what can you do about it?

KDKA talked to some local experts, like Varnish, who had some advice.

He recommends buying tickets during the presale.

"Most everything that goes on sale now has presales, and one thing I always say is, the presale is the new on-sale," Varnish said. "Don't wait until the on-sale."

Also he says become a Ticketmaster verified fan, and use the venue's primary ticket sources.

Bennett says she'll try again when Timberlake comes back on Sept. 25.