A Newton man had Taylor Swift concert tickets, a roughly $4,000 present for his daughter, stolen through his email, and how two-factor authentication could have helped him avoid the situation.
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You probably have your bank and investments accounts protected with two-factor authentication, but what about all of your other accounts?
A Newton, Massachusetts, man got a lesson in how important that security step is when he had thousands of dollars worth of concert tickets stolen. He reached out to our NBC10 Boston responds team for help.
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Charles Nyman got his daughter the tickets to see Taylor Swift in Poland in August a big birthday present. He spent about $4,000 on them.
But a week before the concert, he got an email alert saying he had successfully transferred the tickets from his online account.
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“I immediately logged in my StubHub account and the tickets were gone,” says Nyman. “I immediately contacted StubHub and they told me that you authorized the transfer to this individual. I told them that I had never heard of this individual and certainly did not authorize it. And they said …we’ll escalate it to our fraud department. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.”
Nyman says he was eventually told he should file a claim with his credit card to try to get his money back, even though it had been months since he made the purchase.
“As far as they were concerned, the transfer was valid and there is no fault on their side,” says Nyman. “Any requests to escalate it to someone higher up were met with deaf ears and any escalation to ask to speak to someone in the fraud department got no response.”
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Nyman bought another set of tickets to the concert so he wouldn’t disappoint his daughter and contacted NBC10 Boston Responds for help. We asked StubHub about the situation and they told us someone gained access to Nyman’s account with valid login credentials.
The company says that in cases of fraud that are committed through someone’s personal information being exploited from a breach elsewhere, it’s policy for the customer to dispute the charge with their financial institution.
StubHub blocked the account the tickets were transferred to and told us, as a courtesy, it provided a full refund to Nyman of his original order. And as a token of appreciation for his patience and acknowledgement of the poor communication and experience on its end, the company also gave him a coupon to use toward a future StubHub purchase.
“I'm incredibly grateful for the effort that you've put in on my behalf,” says Nyman. “You know, in hindsight, this was an account that I’ve had for over a decade. I've never changed the password during that time….so I haven't given the password any thought, at least for a matter of many years.”
StubHub says users have the option to turn on two-factor authentication sign-on security to avoid a situation like this — anyone logging in to an account would have to verify and approve the login through a second method of authentication.
Nyman has enabled it on his StubHub account and others.
“I’ve definitely learned that digital security isn't just for the important accounts,” says Nyman. “These random accounts, whether it be movie accounts or StubHub accounts or others that may seem trivial, could be the door that people gain access to you and your information.”
This is a great reminder to revisit older accounts that may not have offered two-factor authentication when you first signed up for them. Enable it on all of your accounts and change up your passwords.
And if you have a consumer problem you need help with, reach out to us at www.nbcboston.com/contactresponds
We will get back to you!
