Wiseguys Tickets charged with hacking into Ticketmaster, Livenation to illegally grab best seats

[Earth_First]

High-tech scammers shut ordinary fans out of the biggest concerts and ballgames by hacking into Ticketmaster and snatching up 1.5 million prime seats, prosecutors charged Monday.

Calling themselves Wiseguy Tickets, the four California men pulled in more than $25 million by virtually muscling their way to the head of the line during online sales - and reselling the tickets to brokers, prosecutors said.

They were so successful that they became "the leading source of the best tickets for the most popular events," according to a 43-count federal fraud indictment unsealed in New Jersey.

Defense lawyers said the men did nothing wrong and compared the scheme to nothing more sinister than camping out overnight for tickets.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/01/2010-03-01_wiseguys_tickets_charged_with_hacking_into_ticketmaster_livenation_to_illegally_.html

[camio]

1. This is very interesting, thank you!

So that's why I'm always stuck on the grass...

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Get this - THEY ARE NOT HACKERS. I don't think they did anything wrong.

I saw this last night and now I've read this.

They used the online ordering system as it was available to anyone. They didn't hack "into" the system.

It's no different as if someone had a hundred speed-dialing telephones or hired a bunch of kids to stand in line overnight.

They invented a way to EXPLOIT the system, YES. Did they "hack" into the system? NO.

The internal email msg about the public snapping was real - if the public got wind of it, they would make them change the ticket ordering system and the Wiseguys may be out of business - THAT was the concern. The system as it was, was a goose laying golden eggs and they didn't want it killed.

*IF* there were some terms of service which were violated, then that's another thing, but the wording would be very tricky because ordinary people were also using "computerized automated systems" to ORDER the tickets - your PC is an automated system.

All I'm saying is that from what I've gathered they exploited a bad system and now politicians want to act like they're good guys rather than change the ordering system...

[Earth_First]

4. So the program they used to exploit CAPTCHA is completely legal?

It was my understanding that it was utilized to prevent exactly this...

[FormerDittoHead]

5. That's what I'm thinking. Hacking would be finding a SECRET password. LET ME CLARIFY.

Hacking would be trying to figure out a SECRET password. The letters in the CAPTCHA were right there in public.

The makers of this system and the CAPTCHA system *ASSUMED* that there was this magical point where people could read the publicly available letters but computers couldn't.

Let me clarify. *IF* the Wiseguys were using some reiterative system which failed 90% of the time searching for the right code, tying the system up like a DOS attack, THAT would be hacking.

Again, if there were some terms of service which clearly forbid that, then they're in the wrong.

[Earth_First]

7. So apparently the TM Captcha system wasn't or rather isn't as random as one would think...

What the folks over at Wiseguys did was to get ahold of the answer 'key' to all TM Captcha's and exploit the system using purchasing bots.

Not sure if a hack was utilized to get this 'key' but one tells me that with a whole lot of peristance, that this key could have been generated by simple persistance on behalf of a few patient users and viola!

If the latter is the case, I don't see much of a case here...

[customerserviceguy]

6. Just ticket scalpers

At some point, the public's going to get fed up with a system that allows such blatant manipulation. I would hope that the entertainers who have their tickets scalped in such a way use their high profiles to cut off this scam, even if the motive is just to grab that money for themselves.

[marmar]

3. One set of scammers scamming another.....

Ticketmaster's fees are obscene.