Beware of conterfeit Super Bowl LI tickets

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Every year, the police warn the public, and every year, people become victims of fraud.

"The higher the value of the ticket, there'll be more people out there trying to counterfeit because it'll be worth so much,” said Jack Stopnicki, a ticket broker and the owner of Ticket Stop.

Fake Super Bowl tickets will be for sale over the next few weeks and experts are warning people not to fall for them.

“You want to go to a website that's guaranteed like a StubHub or NFL Ticket Exchange for one, but if you go to Craigslist and you see a ticket that’s half of what you know the market is, then you probably shouldn’t buy a ticket because that’s a red flag right there,” added Stopnicki.

According to the Santa Clara Police Department, for Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco, police saw a total of eight counterfeit ticket cases on the day of the game. The amount is not high, but authorities said you have to remember that each person was paying about $5,000 dollars a ticket. Authorities were able to make four arrests.

Scammers will capitalize on people desperately trying to get tickets on game day. Some scalpers have been known to resell previously used tickets. For example, someone will use a real ticket to get in, hand that ticket off to a scalper outside of the gate and that scalper will resell the ticket for cash. Then, when the victim tries to use that ticket, not only will they not be able to gain entry, they will have thousands of dollars scammed from them.

The NFL usually doesn't release the tickets until it's much closer to the big day to deter counterfeiters from seeing what the design looks like. As for where prices stand right now? It all depends on who wins this week.

“Everyone’s waiting to see who will be in the game," said Stopnicki. "The market kind of keeps going up every week, and right now, it's leveled off about $4,000 to $4,5000 a ticket to start with, and everyone’s just waiting to see if the Cowboys get in it."

If the Cowboys win, ticket brokers said Super Bowl ticket prices will skyrocket simply because the demand will be higher since the Cowboys are so close to Houston.