This is fraud the police do too little about and it would be very easy to stop. Send undercover cops to buy tickets, and when they don't work, find the scammers and fine them $5000. This regulation would be easy to make. I met a woman who was ripped off recently and she was upset over it.
Toronto News: Ticket scammer Shaun Nixon is back in the slammer - thestar.com
Ticket scammer Shaun Nixon is back in the slammer
Published On Sat Apr 28 2012
Shaun Nixon, shown here in a 2002 photo taken for a Hamilton Spectator story on people with gambling addictions, has been convicted of yet another ticket fraud scheme.
Ron Pozzer/Hamilton Spectator file photo
Josh Tapper Staff Reporter
Serial ticket fraudster Shaun Nixon, who served six months in jail last year for bilking hundreds of unsuspecting concert-goers out of thousands of dollars, has once again written his own ticket to the slammer.
The 31-year-old swindler, arrested Wednesday at Union Station, owns a lengthy rap sheet of fraud offences, all related to a cross-country con selling fake concert and sports tickets over Craigslist.
Nixon, a Hamilton native, pleaded guilty Friday in College Park court to one count of fraud over $5,000, five counts of fraud under $5,000, uttering a forged document and failure to comply with probation. He’s being held in custody until his next court appearance May 11.
The Crown, which called Nixon’s scam “large-scale” fraud, alleges that the portly con artist started his most recent scheme on June 28, 2011, just one day after his release from prison. It is unknown how many people Nixon defrauded or how much money he accrued over the course of the 10-month operation, but scores of angry Internet postings — on Craigslist and other sites, including the cautionary blog, Shaun Nixon Scam — suggest the ruse was far-reaching. Nixon worked under several pseudonyms, including “Frank Turner” and “Robert Cook.”
“He has a great voice and sounded like someone I could trust,” said Michelle Rutherford.
The Toronto teacher narrowly dodged the scam last week after she purchased four $130 tickets to see British boy band One Direction, a hot-selling concert May 31 at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.
When Nixon, calling himself Frank Turner, stopped responding to her emails, Rutherford sensed something was up and cancelled her money transfer. Only later, after reading victim testimonies online, did she realize who Turner really was.
“It’s an accident and mistake I won’t make again,” Rutherford said Friday.
The fraud thrives on its simplicity: Nixon posts a Craigslist ad, offering value tickets fo
r high-profile concerts, like the Tragically Hip and the Beach Boys. Nixon then asks his victims to email him money, promising he’ll express-mail the tickets upon receipt. To assuage doubters, Nixon provides a phone number for buyers to contact him.
Ken Rousselle, a Toronto consultant, lost $250 on fake One Direction tickets after speaking with Nixon, again disguised as Frank Turner, over the phone. “He told me his daughters couldn’t make it and was happy to hear how another father would do this for (his) children,” Rousselle wrote in an email. “Well, guess what, I didn’t get the tickets.”
Nixon has several phone numbers and email addresses and allegedly received payment through a girlfriend’s bank account.
The Toronto police financial crimes unit could not be reached for comment Friday.
Besides his 2011 sentence, Nixon served a year in jail in 2007 after a Hamilton judge sentenced him for defrauding 92 people of roughly $18,000 using the same scheme.
“We need to send a message out that this won’t be tolerated,” Justice Don Cooper said at the time. “I’d hate to see this become a trend.”
Toronto News: Ticket scammer Shaun Nixon is back in the slammer - thestar.com
Ticket scammer Shaun Nixon is back in the slammer
Published On Sat Apr 28 2012
Ron Pozzer/Hamilton Spectator file photo
Josh Tapper Staff Reporter
Serial ticket fraudster Shaun Nixon, who served six months in jail last year for bilking hundreds of unsuspecting concert-goers out of thousands of dollars, has once again written his own ticket to the slammer.
The 31-year-old swindler, arrested Wednesday at Union Station, owns a lengthy rap sheet of fraud offences, all related to a cross-country con selling fake concert and sports tickets over Craigslist.
Nixon, a Hamilton native, pleaded guilty Friday in College Park court to one count of fraud over $5,000, five counts of fraud under $5,000, uttering a forged document and failure to comply with probation. He’s being held in custody until his next court appearance May 11.
The Crown, which called Nixon’s scam “large-scale” fraud, alleges that the portly con artist started his most recent scheme on June 28, 2011, just one day after his release from prison. It is unknown how many people Nixon defrauded or how much money he accrued over the course of the 10-month operation, but scores of angry Internet postings — on Craigslist and other sites, including the cautionary blog, Shaun Nixon Scam — suggest the ruse was far-reaching. Nixon worked under several pseudonyms, including “Frank Turner” and “Robert Cook.”
“He has a great voice and sounded like someone I could trust,” said Michelle Rutherford.
The Toronto teacher narrowly dodged the scam last week after she purchased four $130 tickets to see British boy band One Direction, a hot-selling concert May 31 at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.
When Nixon, calling himself Frank Turner, stopped responding to her emails, Rutherford sensed something was up and cancelled her money transfer. Only later, after reading victim testimonies online, did she realize who Turner really was.
“It’s an accident and mistake I won’t make again,” Rutherford said Friday.
The fraud thrives on its simplicity: Nixon posts a Craigslist ad, offering value tickets fo
r high-profile concerts, like the Tragically Hip and the Beach Boys. Nixon then asks his victims to email him money, promising he’ll express-mail the tickets upon receipt. To assuage doubters, Nixon provides a phone number for buyers to contact him.
Ken Rousselle, a Toronto consultant, lost $250 on fake One Direction tickets after speaking with Nixon, again disguised as Frank Turner, over the phone. “He told me his daughters couldn’t make it and was happy to hear how another father would do this for (his) children,” Rousselle wrote in an email. “Well, guess what, I didn’t get the tickets.”
Nixon has several phone numbers and email addresses and allegedly received payment through a girlfriend’s bank account.
The Toronto police financial crimes unit could not be reached for comment Friday.
Besides his 2011 sentence, Nixon served a year in jail in 2007 after a Hamilton judge sentenced him for defrauding 92 people of roughly $18,000 using the same scheme.
“We need to send a message out that this won’t be tolerated,” Justice Don Cooper said at the time. “I’d hate to see this become a trend.”