An Ajax, Ont., couple has a warning for bargain hunters after their credit card information was stolen while they tried to buy discounted tickets online.
The couple, David Beeby and Lori Lazaros, tried to buy discounted tickets for Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto using the website shop-groupon.com. But they found that the address, phone number and e-mail address associated with the site were all fake.
This website is not associated with the popular discount site groupon.com.
The couple tried to purchase tickets for the aquarium for only $16.49, almost half the actual price.
Beeby said he realized that something was wrong when his first credit card was rejected by the shop-groupon.com website.
“All of a sudden I had to cancel all my credit cards because they had my credit card numbers, my birthday and my CSV numbers.
“I’m tech savvy and I got fooled, I mean that’s the shame of it all,” Beeby said.
Ripley’s Aquarium says it has been receiving complaints about fake tickets and advises that tickets be bought directly from their website.
In a statement, the general manager of Ripley’s Aquarium said “we do not authorize third party agencies to offer tickets on our behalf.”
Shop-groupon.com has been targeting Toronto attractions, claiming to also have discounted tickets for the CN Tower and the Toronto Zoo.
Credit card companies traced the website to Beijing, China.
When buying tickets from a discount site, it is recommended to always call ahead to check if the website selling the tickets is legitimate.
Secure websites that protect credit card information often have a URL beginning with HTTPS, instead of HTTP. The added ‘S’ means that the website is secure.
With a report from CTV's Pat Foran.
