How I Got Scammed Trying To Attend The VMA's

On this Labor Day I will like to share a little story about losing hard-earned money. I also want to say thank you to Blair for encouraging me to write this post. 

As Joanne the Scammer made her debut at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards I encountered my first scammer. Yes, that is right I was scammed out of $200.00 dollars trying to attend the 2016 VMA's by using Craigslist. This could have been avoided but one must understand my personality. When I want something I am persistent in obtaining it, even if I have to trip and fall along the way.

As a young boy, dating as far back as the late 1990's watching the VMA's became my yearly tradition. It is one of the many reasons why I wanted to move to NYC but in the past 12 years MTV decided to move the VMA's all around the US from NYC to Miami to LA. Well this year was the year that MTV decided to bring the VMA's back to its birthplace. On top of that Rihanna was the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award recipient this year, Beyoncé was to be present and Britney Spears was announced as a performer. In my mind I was going to the VMA's and I had no intentions of being stopped.

So here is where the process began, I entered a ticket lottery to be a seat filler, a pit fan, a red carpet viewer, heck I even entered to win seats with an obstructed view. Two days before the big show I received an email stating I could not be accommodated. Fair, so I looked elsewhere and realized Ticketmaster was selling tickets but there was a catch, you needed a promo code before even seeing the tickets. I searched and searched until I found that promo code but unfortunately by the time I could see the tickets there was one left in level 200. Now that was just not good enough as I wanted to attend but I needed a great view. So succumbed to the worst, Craigslist. I perused those options and found one legit looking option. I sent and email to the seller and went to bed.

I woke up Sunday, the day of the big show, to an email from the seller. We exchanged contact info and he stated he only wanted cash, red flag one. I knew this was an obvious risk but I convinced myself otherwise. So he told me to meet his nephew in the Upper East Side, now for those of you who do not know, the Upper East Side is old money, darling. I was not expecting a white person but I was definitely expecting a clean cut person. When the nephew arrived all I saw was dinge; a very urban looking guy with his tattoos. That iss right, I am being judgmental and after this experience I shall make no apologies for it. However, at the time I tried not to judge him based on his appearance. So he showed me the tickets and everything looked legit: the names matched. I saw no imperfections except I did notice the numbers under the barcode were in an unusual pattern. I overlooked another red flag, gave the man the cash, shook the man's hand and was on my way. Oh and get this, I even said to the guy, "Even if this turns out to be a scam so be it."

I returned home, showered, put on my clothes and was on my merry way to Madison Square Garden. When I got there there were several people already in line from winning the ticket lottery. I went up to a security guard and was told to come back at 7pm. So I then called a close friend from back home to keep my company as I people watched and caught a glimpse of the red carpet from across the street. The time hit 7pm and it was time for the moment of truth. I walked back around and showed the same security guard my ticket and was admitted. I then went through security check with no problem. Now it was time to get my ticket scanned and at this moment time slowed down. As I watched a green tick appeared on the screen as each attendee ahead of me entered the checkpoint. As time slowed down and my heart began to beat faster I walked up to the ticket checker and handed her my ticket to scan. She scanned the ticket, a large red x then appeared on her screen and she simply said, "invalid." Well "cunny hole fock" my world just stopped...

I took my defeat like a champ turned around and walked out with my head held high. Of course I called two friends to update them on what happened. To be honest, I thought I would be cussin' and carrying on but I was too disappointed to even bother. It was a failure I set myself up for. We all have heard of blind risks but this was one was visible; I saw the signs from the very beginning but I was just too hard headed to accept them. You know, it was not the money, mind you $200.00 is a good amount of money to give up in one go but it was the experience that I missed out on that had me more down than anything else. Come on, when will there be another VMA's, in NYC, where Rihanna, Beyoncé and Britney Spears perform in the same building? 

After hanging up on the phone with my friends I hopped on the subway and headed right on over to a bar to watch the big show on a large projection screen, which was my original plan. Turns out I still had a great time, conversed with a few other people and probably was just as hype as I would have been had I been in Madison Square Garden. So the moral(s) of this story is go with your gut feeling, do not let your excitement cloud your better judgement and refrain from using Craigslist as much as you can. Hey, at least I got a blog post out of this.