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Action 9: Avoid being scammed when buying Panthers playoff tickets

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tickets for the Jan. 12 Panthers playoff game go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. 

The stadium ticket office won't be open. The Panthers are telling fans to buy through Ticketmaster.

The game is at 1 p.m. The Panthers will host the Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers or Philadelphia Eagles.

Tickets start at $61 and go up to $430. Expect them to sell out quickly. 

Once they do, fans may still be able to land them -- but watch out for high-priced fakes. 

One recent victim Action 9 found didn't want to go camera, but wanted to warn people.

He and his wife live in Lexington. They drove the hour and a half to Charlotte to go to the recent Panthers vs. Saints game for their anniversary.

Playoff game to bring excitement, big business to uptown

They found someone selling tickets on Craigslist, met him the morning of the game and bought two seats.

"They appeared to be legitimate tickets," the husband said.

But when they got to the gate, they said the usher told them those seats were already sold to someone else just 40 minutes earlier. 

"We spent $220," he said.

There are other examples, like Roberto Garcia. 

He's serving roughly three years at Lanesboro Correctional Institute in Anson County for selling thousands of dollars worth of fake tickets to brokers. 

A prosecutor who worked the case, Nathan Brooks, said it's hard to trick brokers. 

"If you're in the ticket-broker industry, you're looking for counterfeit tickets, it's something you know is out there, but that's how convincing Mr. Garcia and practiced at this he is," he said.

That's why the Better Business Bureau recommends buying tickets from five sources:

  • Ticketmaster
  • NFL Ticket Exchange
  • RazorGator
  • Stubhub
  • TicketsNow


Plus, make sure you know what the actual playoff ticket should look like.

For more information on Panthers playoff tickets, click here.