Company scams dozens of would-be Coachella attendees with fake tickets
The exclusive pair of weekends come around just twice a year. The passes, near impossible to acquire. The prices on the secondary-ticket market, exorbitant. For dozens of would-be Coachella festival attendees, they believed they had beaten the odds and gotten their hands on the prized passes; but by the time they reached will call, they realized they had been hoodwinked.
A company called “HTDTixx” has scammed over 50 people, charging some of them $2,500 for nonexistent three-day passes to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The ruse was simple and set up like a standard ticket site; a customer would make their purchase, then get information on where to pick up said pass, in this case, Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio.
But when the pass purchasers show up, there are no tickets waiting for them.
Fantasy Springs has no relationship with HTDTixx or any other third-party ticket vendors and have no tickets to sell. Tribal police at the Fantasy Springs report have taken reports from people throughout the day from people who have fallen victim to the false pass scam.
“We got there and there were already a couple people there and they looked confused there wasn’t anyone who had our tickets,” said Nika Logvinova, a victim of the scam from San Francisco. “Someone from the hotel came down and they said the man who had our tickets had checked out yesterday and he was gone.”
Repeated calls to HTDTixx’s customer service line listed on its website have gone straight to voicemail.
If you think you’ve been a victim of the scam, you can report it online to the Indio Police Department here.
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