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Man victimized by Seahawks ticket scam warns others

BELLEVUE, Wash. — "I was so excited for this." That excitement still hasn't worn off for Aaron Schneider.

He met us outside Bellevue Square Mall dressed like a devoted 12th man, even interrupting our interview when a driver honked and shouted -- "Go Hawks!"

This is where Schneider met a man last week claiming on Craigslist he was selling hard-to-get NFC championship playoff tickets.

"I said, 'So you have the tickets? ' " said Schneider. "And he said, 'Yeah, here they are.'  And I looked at them and they looked fairly legitimate.  Had a friend tell me, 'Well, if you do it, make sure you get, ask for their driver's license and take a picture of it.' "

The man he met was 33-year-old Carlos Duran, purportedly from Portland.

"Gave him the $750 and got the tickets," said Schneider.

But when he and his wife arrived at CenturyLink Field, Schneider said they went to the entrance, and tried to get in and they said 'Sorry, these aren't valid.' "

"Let's face it, these scammers are hungry, they're desperate, they're sophisticated," said the Better Business Bureau's David Quinlan.

So he has the following advice.

"Go through a verified reseller," said Quinlan. "You want to make sure whoever you buy those tickets from can basically prove and guarantee that the tickets are the real deal."

"(I) definitely learned a hard lesson," Schneider said.

It's a lesson he hopes to spare others.

"I don't normally get to go to games, and we were going to go in big for this one," said Schneider.  "So it stinks."

Schneider filed a report with Bellevue police.

If you do buy legitimate Super Bowl tickets, and want to show them off on social media, make sure to cover up the bar code.

Otherwise, scammers can copy the bar code and create fraudulent tickets off of yours.