If you were one of the thousands of Bruce Springsteen fans who recently pointed their browser over to Ticketmaster to score some tickets to his show, only to be met with an unresponsive website, you’re not alone.
Just about as soon as tickets for The Boss’ live shows in New York and New Jersey went on sale, the Ticketmaster website went unresponsive for several hours and, by the time the site was all fixed, the tickets were gone.
According to a statement from Ticketmaster, scalpers with “sophisticated” computer programs are to blame. Scalpers targeted the site with Distributed Denial of Service attacks, which generated extra junk traffic, resulting in the unresponsiveness of the site.
“Big acts mean big fan interest. Unfortunately this also means that scalpers are out in full force,” Ticketmaster said in a statement. “Scalpers were using sophisticated computer programs to assault our systems and secure tickets with the sole intention of selling them in the resale market.
“We anticipate and prepare for volume, but what we experienced today was a highly suspicious source of traffic, and there was exponentially more traffic than other similar days with major ‘onsales,’ ”
Not long after the site became responsive, Springsteen tickets were showing up across several secondary ticketing websites, including Stubhub. According to a report, prices on said ticketing sites ranged from $143 for nosebleed seats to nearly $8,000 for prime spots.
Springsteen’s upcoming 19-date tour kicks off March 18 in Atlanta, with a stop at Madison Square Garden on April 6 and April 9.
