Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Drubbed StubHub carder grub guilty, faces 12 years in cooler club

Million dollar scam club flubs, cops get lion but no cubs

The Russian ringleader of a carding group has pled guilty to selling US$1.6 million (£1.1 million, A$2.1 million) worth of tickets to major events, bought using credit cards stolen from StubHub accounts.

Vadim Polyakov, 32, led a group that broke into StubHub accounts using the access to buy tickets to premiere music, sports, and theatre events.

The group then sold those tickets for profit, some fetching US$1,000 (£683, A$1,337) each.

Prosecutors say more than 1,000 StubHub accounts were compromised to purchase over 3500 tickets to events such as Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, and games at Yankee Stadium.

Polyakov was busted in 2014 while travelling in Spain and extradited to the US over protests from Moscow.

"After investigating the receipts and transaction records of more than 1600 illegally accessed accounts, analysts in the DA’s Office were able to trace the exchanges to internet protocol addresses, PayPal accounts, bank accounts, and other financial accounts used and controlled by the suspects," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr said at the time of the indictments.

Hacked accounts held by the eBay company were thought accessed by exploiting poor password choices and a lack of two factor authentication.

Users also reported that PayPal accounts once linked to StubHub allowed for future unverified purchases to be made. Customers had to call Stubhub to have the two accounts disconnected.

StubHub reimbursed affected customers.

Nine other fraudsters were indicted but some are yet to be arrested.

Three of the men charged by the US are from Russia, while the others are US residents who are alleged to have acted as ticket scalpers.

New York has just done its bit to shut down ticketing scams by banning bot-buying, which would make it a lot harder to run something like the StubHub scam. ®

 

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like