Man accused of selling fake Justin Bieber tickets facing charges

Justin Bieber fans in Vancouver are getting some justice, now that an alleged ticket scammer is facing charges.

Thousands of concert-goers packed Rogers Arena for Justin Bieber’s Purpose tour back in March, though not everyone made it inside. Among those left out in the cold: Sarah Street, who bought her tickets from a seller on Craigslist.

Street said she responded to an ad on Craigslist, meeting with the seller on Marine Drive just days before the concert.

However, she did something police say more people should do if they’re going to take that risk: she took a photo of the seller’s identification.

Amber Sekhon, who also purchased tickets from the same seller as Street, took a picture of the man.

“He said you can take a picture of me and he started laughing,” Sekhon told Global News back in March. “He said there’s no reason to because these tickets aren’t fake.”

After sharing her story with Global News, a Vancouver Police investigator contacted the newsroom, saying they were investigating several complaints by concert-goers who said they’d all bought tickets from the same man.

Qui Ngoc Nguyen is now facing charges of fraud and identity theft. Court documents show a total of 16 people were defrauded.

Nguyen is due back in court in December.

Vancouver Police say the bigger the concert, the more fake tickets there are floating around and, according to Sgt. Brian Montague, the seller isn’t always someone investigators have caught before.

“They’re paying high school students, college students, young people who have never had any interaction with the police, no criminal record,” Montague said. “People that we’re not familiar with to do the buying and selling for them.”

For Street, the experience is a lesson learned.

“The biggest lesson was you can’t trust things online these days. There’s too many ways to make fake tickets.”