 |
Bob Geldof |
Within hours of Canada's Live 8 show selling out, some unscrupulous individuals tried to take advantage of the free humanitarian event by posting the tickets for sale on eBay.com.
A 3-day listing by user "enjoymichelle" was up over $100 (U.S.) with a starting bid at $1 and 11 bids, but eBay finally took it down within 50 minutes.
The online auction site did take down previous listings, as a result of some nasty words from Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof when tickets for shows in other cities were for sale.
Even if the listings are taken down, email exchanges have already occurred and the transactions can still go ahead. Banning of the eBay members would also be appropriate, since scalping of tickets is on the list of prohibited items.
One scammer tried to get around the ban by offering "2 Brand new spanking g-mail invites!" with a bonus of two tickets to Live 8 in Barrie, Ont. on July 2. Username "Psxnet" writes: "This auction is only for the gmail invites, the bonus is because I may not be able to use the tickets."
TicketsNow.com is currently selling tickets to the Barrie show for $570 U.S. each. Another American site, Razorgator.com, is asking $411 U.S. per ticket. On other sites, they were going as high as $1,000 U.S. each.
eBay members are also listing the Make Poverty History wristbands, which can be legitimately bought on www.makepovertyhistory.com. Knock offs for these charity wristbands are rampant.
Full Live 8 Coverage
