Watch out for March Madness scams across Washington state

In less than a week, Climate Pledge Arena will transform its ice rink into a basketball court as Seattle hosts thousands of fans for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Excitement for the tournament is building, but scammers are already hard at work.

“It’s not that people are foolish or that they don’t understand how to do things. This scamming is a professional business,” says cybersecurity expert, Paul Keener.

In one of the largest scams, scammers sell tickets that look legitimate but aren’t. Oftentimes, the buyers don’t even know their ticket is fake until they arrive at the event and are turned away.

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Here’s how to avoid March Madness scams

For the NCAA tournament, a spokesperson for Climate Pledge tells KIRO 7, “We strive for the best possible guest experience for all fans who come to Climate Pledge Arena, whether that be for a Kraken game, concert, or the upcoming March Madness games. We strongly encourage all fans to buy their tickets from the venue’s primary ticket provider. For Climate Pledge Arena, this is Ticketmaster.com.  NCAA Ticket Exchange on Ticketmaster is the official resale marketplace for the upcoming March Madness games.”

“Nobody wants to pay the service charges associated with all of these things,” says Keener. “So you try to find a place like Facebook Marketplace or something like that.”

He says if you do buy resale, use sites like Stub Hub, Vivid Seats, and Ticketmaster, which offer refund protections that Craigslist and Facebook don’t have.

His biggest coaching tip – use a credit card, so if you are scammed, you can dispute the charge and hopefully recoup the money.

“Maybe you’re disappointed because you couldn’t get in the game, but at least you didn’t lose out $400 in tickets,” says Keener.