Some Major League Baseball fans have arrived at ballparks this month to find their digital tickets have not only disappeared, but have been resold on popular platforms such as SeatGeek and StubHub.
In a statement acknowledging the problem to The Athletic, the league said that “bad actors” have been able to access fans’ tickets on a platform used by all 30 MLB teams — the Ballpark app — because of passwords scammers obtained or deciphered through other sources.
“The Ballpark app is operating properly and continues to process tickets for millions of fans who attend MLB games. There is no evidence that this was a breach of the MLB system,” the league said. “There have been widespread reports of significant data breaches on other platforms. Bad actors then have utilized leaked or stolen credentials from other websites in efforts to access the accounts of MLB fans.
“We are working tirelessly to address this matter and protect our fans. We want all of our fans to have a great experience when they come to the ballpark and we are sorry that some fans have had to deal with an issue related to their tickets.”
MLB declined to disclose how many incidents it has counted. The rash of scams started around Labor Day, a league source briefed on the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly said. Fans have taken to social media, where one discussion dedicated to the topic on Reddit had 78 comments as of Friday morning.
The league is asking fans to change their passwords on their systems to something new and unique. But affected ticketholders are often confused when they arrive at the ballpark, scrambling for answers in box offices, and some are disappointed MLB did not more widely communicate with fans previously.
“It’s leaving me feeling incredibly vulnerable,” Red Sox fan Nancy Morrisroe of Boston said.
Morrisroe said she has been a Sox season-ticket holder since 2007, and today shares a plan with a friend. Over Labor Day weekend, the friend forwarded her seats for a match-up with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“I checked the tickets before I went to make sure they were in the Ballpark app,” Morrisroe said. “It was a few hours before, and they were there. And then by the time I got to Fenway — and it’s only a half hour away from my house walking — they weren’t there.”
Morrisroe called her friend and asked him to forward the seats to her again, but he couldn’t.
“I get into the box office, and it was so many people in there saying, ‘I just bought them off of StubHub, I just bought them!’” Morrisroe said. “When I called (MLB over) Labor Day weekend, it was a Sunday after the Saturday fiasco, and I waited over an hour and the guy said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re getting inundated with calls.’”
Morrisroe said she was ultimately able to receive seats for the game. The Red Sox deferred comment to MLB. StubHub did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
On Reddit, one user posted a screenshot of a message that appeared to come from the New York Mets acknowledging “unrecognized transactions.” The Mets did not respond to The Athletic’s request for comment.
Fans with tickets to watch home games for large-market teams such as the Mets and Red Sox appear to be more popular targets for the scammers, the league official briefed on the incidents said. Those tickets tend to sell for high prices.
“We’re not able to comment on the situation as investigations are still ongoing,” SeatGeek said.
MLB is focusing on its users’ password hygiene.
“We are telling fans to reset their password to a new, unique password that they will not use anywhere else,” MLB said in its statement. “We have taken this step as a precaution in an effort to protect fans and their tickets. Before leaving for the game, fans should check their Ballpark account and/or proactively reset their password. They should log out of all MLB applications and log back in with their updated password.”
Morrisroe, however, said she had continued problems with the league’s app even after changing her password.
“There needs to be two-factor authentication (when transferring tickets) or something,” she said. “There needs to be some sort of safeguard. … Now we’re going to be going into the postseason with a lot of money involved.”
MLB has previously touted the success of its Ballpark app. Per a 2023 story the league published on its website, 99.5 percent of fans “successfully retrieved their tickets” in 2022, up from 85 percent in 2021. Thirty-two million tickets were scanned from the app in 2022, the story said.
The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey contributed to this report.
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
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