BALTIMORE — A Glen Burnie man is warning other concert-goers about an impostor pretending to be a famous singer.
Moerio Zeigler recently lost hundreds of dollars after trying to buy discounted concert tickets from someone posing as Alicia Keys.
“I haven't been to concerts in a while, but yah, this was one I wanted to go to,” said Zeigler.
Until he saw tickets at MGM National Harbor, a more intimate and pricier venue, were going for hundreds of dollars.
“I think like $400-$500 a seat at MGM, so I couldn't afford to pay that per person to go to MGM and I was just trying to get a discounted rate,” Zeigler recalled.
He then found a Facebook fan page for the singer and posted about buying discounted tickets. Someone responded asking him to download Telegram, a messaging service, and when they started chatting, the person claimed to be the real Alicia Keys.
“I remember saying, 'I went to school for electrical engineering, and I've been studying computer stuff recently, this could be a scam,' blah blah blah. And then, they were like, 'You know, I get so upset when fans think it's not me,' and then they showed me a driver's license, and it looked like Alicia's name and it didn't go by last name Keys. It had another last name, which was a real name I thought, at least from Siri, and it just looked like a legitimate New York ID. And I just thought wow, you must really be Alicia Keys,” said Zeigler.
She supposedly offered him two tickets for $150 each. Zeigler sent the money via Zelle then waited for the tickets.
“She's like, ‘I'm out of the country, I'll take care of it when I get back.’ I didn't know if she was going to mail them or email them, and then the next thing you know, I get the tickets and they have no barcode on them. I'm like that's not going to help me,” Zeigler said.
He figured it out then that this wasn’t the real Alicia Keys, and his money is now gone.
“I found out from the bank you can't really get your money back from Zelle, so I'm at a loss,” Zeigler lamented. “That's a lot to give away for nothing.”
Zeigler remembers feeling like something was off.
The Zelle account was to an individual named Jaclyn Paige. At first, they claimed the transfer never went through after Zeigler received confirmation that it had, and then they tried getting another $300 for a fan ID to meet Keys at the show.
WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii reached out to MGM National Harbor and Keys’ label for comment on other impostor scams and counterfeit tickets. She hasn’t yet heard back.
When buying tickets through a re-seller, use a credit card for the best fraud protection.
To beat bots that sweep up all the tickets, try getting in on pre-sales. Check the artist’s website for information on tours and when tickets will become available. Different credit cards also offer perks to purchase tickets through pre-sale events or other concert experiences.