October Baseball Is Near - BUYER BEWARE !

As the 2025 Major League Baseball season winds down with a few teams already clinching their October ticket and a few others still fighting to stay alive, many of you will be heading out to the ballpark glued to your favorite teams' chase to October. Some of you may already be purchasing tickets to potential playoff games. 

If you already have purchased tickets to any remaining regular season games and plan to purchase tickets for post season play, you may want to keep an extra close watch of your ticket purchases. With paper and print at home tickets mostly a thing of the past, there have been reports throughout the league of 'Bad Actors' stealing tickets from fans though the MLB Ballpark App, including Chicago, Boston, and most recently mine and other fans in Los Angeles.

“Bad actors are stealing, reselling fan tickets swiped from MLB’s Ballpark app," MLB acknowledges.

The Athletic cited MLB about how fans are getting scammed with their valid tickets to enter the ballparks.

As I approached the entrance gate looking forward to not only getting my Joe Davis Bobblehead but also witnessing Clayton Kershaw's final Dodger Stadium regular season appearance, the go ahead facial recognition entry prompt was not acknowledging me. As it turned out, my ticket, purchased 2 days prior to game time, was nowhere to be found on the MLB Ballpark App and therefore I was directed to fix the issue at the box office.

Upon arriving at the box office several other fans were lined up as well with similar issues. Many of us had purchased the tickets through various 3rd party sites such as StubHub, TickPick, GameTime, and SeatGeek, all partners with MLB. Several fans stated they had bought their tickets weeks in advance. Because our purchases were through 3rd party sites, we were told to contact them directly.

As I contacted StubHub, I was told my purchase was protected through their FanProtect Guarantee. Within an hour, I was fortunate to be reissued another ticket for a seat closer to the field. It probably helped that I only needed a single ticket.

Upon arrival at my seat,I asked the fans next to me if they had purchased their tickets through StubHub. They responded that they purchased through SeatGeek and that they too had also been scammed and they ended up making a second purchase running that couple’s total cost for their 2 tickets to $300!

Fortunately, my issue had a happy ending and I was still rewarded with my Joe Davis Bobblehead. Unfortunately, not every fan who fell victim to the ‘bad actors’ ticket scam were so lucky.

With our experiences at Dodger Stadium stemming mostly from 3rd party site purchases, here are some tips that can hopefully help you from keeping your tickets scammed. 

• Routinely check your app to see if your tickets are still there. There should be a barcode with your seat locations, date of game, and your name.

• If you should receive an email from MLB.Com Account Service to change your password due to unusual activity to your account, check your ballpark app as well to see if you're still in possession of your tickets. Should they be missing from your app, call the point of contact immediately, be it a 3rd party site or directly from the team.

• If your purchase was directly from the team and your tickets have disappeared prior to the date of game, call them directly and have your MLB Ballpark App account ready and if possible, the date you purchased your tickets and the seat locations. 

Hopefully you will not fall victim to being scammed from your tickets and you’ll be able to watch the excitement of pennant race baseball. If you do become a victim, hopefully these tips will help you in retaining your tickets or being reissued other tickets without being charged extra. Also, if you have the time, contact  MLB Customer Support and make them aware of your experience. 

But remember, BUYER BEWARE. 

Remember to be vigilant about your ticket purchases especially if purchased from 3rd party sites. We don’t want you to be left in the dark from your pennant race baseball tickets!