So as I wrote about yesterday I took my wife on a much needed weekend get-a-way to see Madonna on Saturday night. We flew in early Saturday morning, checked in, got into our room and napped a bit before getting ready for the big show.
I planned this trip as kind of a present to my wife. She kicks ass and works super hard. I bought the best suite I could find and for the Madonna Tickets we had floor seats about 7 rows back from the stage on the left side. I paid $1300.00 for the 2 tickets on eBay over 2 months ago. So ya I have been planning this for a while.
So we go through the turnstile and we go through, they scan our tickets and a buzzer goes off. The lady looks down at them and is like “Umm these tickets are for TOMORROW night not tonight”. I looked down in horror and saw the Sunday the 9th on the bottom of the tickets. GREAT NOW WHAT. So I just looked at the lady and said what do you suggest we do. She said to goto the box office and see if they can do anything for you.
Now we were already through the turnstile and there were mobs of people coming so she said we would have to walk around past the concessions. But we were inside the arena. I told my wife lets just chill a little bit and grab a drink and think about things.
Now I dunno how many know about my background in security but I have about 5 years in the field. I was the lead Unix Server Security admin and lead a team for 3 years with Wells Fargo at there head quarters in Des Moines, IA. They sent me to tons of training but 50% of the training involved social engineering as much as IT. Psychology and how to get people to do what you want them to do was fascinating to me. 90% of it is just acting “as if”.
Ok so back to our situation. My wife and I are waiting in line getting drinks and I am studying the tickets. I notice that the tickets have a perforated side which does not contain the date but just has the seats, section, and price you paid. NICE. I ripped them off and put the larger pieces in my pocket. Now my wife and I made a B-line for those seats. Every time someone looked like they were about to stop us I turned around and pretended to talk to my wife about something while keeping forward momentum acting as if we were going where we belonged. We were only stopped 1 time and I showed the stubs to the person for the section. She was like Umm where is the rest of the ticket. I said they tore it off “she asked who tore it off?” and I totally ignored her and said “HEY LOOK THERE IS JON LETS GO SAY HI” and dashed off to where our tickets were for (even though the wrong night).
Now keep in mind its early… like 7:30PM. Madonna does not take stage until 9pm. So it was very dangerous to stay in this section where we really did not have tickets for. If someone came and had those tickets we would for sure be escorted out of the arena.
So I explained to my wife we were going to go back outside where the soiveniers and drinks were BUT we were going to make sure all the ushers on the way up noticed us so they would not question if we came back down.
I kept asking them where the closest places to get drinks were, where the bathrooms were etc. and when I would ask I would also ask them by name and tried to keep there name in my mind incase I needed to yell down to them to let me in. Afterall I belonged down there.
So long story short my wife and I had a great time just walking around talking and drinking. By this point I was not really that pissed at myself for making this massive mistake and was pretty excited to see how this was going to play out.
Madonna took the stage and I figured it was now or never. We each grabbed 2 drinks and headed down to where we were before. I had already told my wife we just need to eye a open area and go there like we belong. We had 2 drinks so it would be difficult for us to reach for a ticket =P.
We walked right down to the floor and our row we were in before was full but 4 rows up had quite a bit of room. We went in there liked we belonged and started high 5′ing the other people in the area who were dancing it up.
We stayed there all night and had a blast.
Not only were we attending a concert we did not have tickets for we were about 4-5 people back from the stage. All because we did some basic social engineering.
I put together a small compilation of videos from the concert… feel free to make fun of me.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 105 comments… read them below or add one }
You looked like you were having a blast, thats what its all about!
You seem to have had a blast, btw which is your favourite Madonna song
Wasn’t it you who told us all how to cheat the system with Flights? And now this?
It seems you should become a part of John’s Evil crew.
lol great story, nice work.. props to the power of positive thinking!
Great story! Social engineering can really be useful. I’ve had some similar situations that I was able to get out of. Looks like you two had a blast!
sounds like you had a rockstar time!!!
That it does. I always new Shoe was a rockstar and a genius, and now he def. proves my assumption right.
Good job shoe and I’m glad you and your wife had a good time.
lol I messed up my website.
I realize you did pay money for tickets, even if it was for the wrong night…but…nope, I don’t think I would feel right about doing that.
Oh, big deal!
Doesn’t matter its like he still payed for it, even if it was a day early
Nice trick you applied, that was risky
What would you do if there were a house full?
There was a full house and it made zero difference. Everyone was standing
yeah looks like that
Very cool. Social engineering really works. I once read about it in a book called “The Art of Deception”. LOL.
No one sits at a concert anyway
Yea thats true as long as you are in, it doesn’t matter
Jeremy, cool website and excellent description of your social engineering evening. thanks for following me on twitter.
..alex.
Cool post. So did you sell the ticket for Sunday’s concert?
No I gave them to a SEO person I ran into who had nose bleed seats but was going to stick around for pubcon.
Your video is basically a bootleg video. Looks like other people were also doing the same thing.
Does security confiscate camcorders anymore? Cos I want to flip video my next concert, do you think one can video a concert blatantly or do you still need to do it discreetly?
Camcorders are usually a strict no-no! Bootleg material for sure!
Lights, camera, action… I’m a rockstar…. see the crowd’s reaction.
Nice vid, looks like you had an awesome time Shoe.
Hey Jeremy,
Dude, you’re such an awesome guy/husband/everything. You’re wife was cool to play along too. Rock stars for sure! Glad you both had a good time =)
Maybe I could pull the same stunt at elite retreat
I agree your wife has to be the coolest to go along with the flow like that. Yet another reason to envy shoemoney..
Hahahaha!! Definitely, my girlfriend would freak at me if I tried to pull a stunt like that!
Sweet. Maybe you could do an ebook similar to ‘The Art of Deception’, only based on your particular views.
Of course, I preferred to just walk to the stage at the Steve Vai show. Hooray for $30 general admission tickets!
Heheheheheh! I am a retired doorman / usher / venue security person, and have worked at 100′s of venues and events over the years. Your tactics were spot on, good for you to be able to work socially outside of the interweb. Cheers to you for having a blast and sharing your story!
Having done concert ushering also, I know that ushers really aren’t that concerned with everyone being their right seats. Like anyone else, in any other Joe Job situations, we were paid hourly and wanted the least amount of hassles. Just don’t cause a scene or attention, heck we want to see the show too, when we can. Act as if is right. There is no “are you in your right seat goblin” looking for you, most people tell on themselves by not acting as if.
Yes, the story is very instructive. Thank’s, Shoe!
yea its great to see that you pulled it off.
You sir, are the man. Nicely played.
You should have gone all the way and just gone backstage for a one on one with Madonna. That would have set the internet on fire.
Hi,
Interesting story : sounds like a James Bond mission. I’ve enjoyed it.
Thank you
Even Kevin Mitnick would be very proud on your achievement.
Nice trick
Madonna is a cool artist!
Like Judge Matthis says ” Don’t believe you sir..”
how could shoemoney mess up a date like that, but it was a good story though..
Show the ticket stubs or it didn’t happen …
Apparently you don’t know Jeremy at all.
I’d be surprised if he DIDN’T get the wrong tickets.
Nice story and tips
yes. you are right.
agreed on that…
I don’t think he’ll able to pull this off if he doesn’t have his invalid tickets with him at that time
You’d be surprised what you can pull off just by looking like you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to! People are generally nervous about confronting a confident looking-person about what they’re doing
Jeremy Schoemaker is a rockstar
Typical Jeremy!
Very cool present for your wife.
Typical Jeremy, that’s all I can say.
cool!!! hope someone will give me such gift!
So technically you trespassed, boot legged a concert, then gave away the tickets to be used on the correct night. You knowingly used means to circumvent security to obtain access to something worth more than $500 dollars, which in some states is grand larceny.
Usually courts give prison time for grand larceny, and fines for the copyright violations on the bootleg start at $10,000. At what point did you think this was a good idea to blog about this?
Best,
Justin
In which shoe confesses to it all…
Lighten up bro, the venue let him in…It’s their fault.
Freak
Oh, pull your head out, Jusin. I hate people that are so full of the law that it starts coming out of their ass.
My thoughts exactly….
L2
I am way too familiar with social engineering — I’ve been in the IT industry for over 10 years. I know the stories of Captain Crunch (John Draper – the phone phreak – master social engineer). I like to refer to social engineering as someone else incompetence, because for social engineering to work someone has to be incompetent, such in this case the failure to check and verify your tickets was incompetent on the staff part (more specifically the second lady who asked who tore it off). Incompetence is pretty common and most folks don’t over do there job — such as the lady, she probably had more important things to do than verify you had proper tickets, since you already had stubs it looked legit! Since this is the case, finding this loophole is all it takes. If you didn’t make it pass one staff member, then you go to the next and eventually someone would have let you in. One thing you can always count on is incompetence on the job! I’ve done social engineering over the phone plenty of times (not for anything illegal) and when I don’t get what I want from one person I’ll call back until I speak with someone who gives me what I need. Anyway, looks like you had a great time.
I recall Kevin Mitnick saying that 80% of his hacking was actually social engineering. Call admin assistant staff when the boss was gone, asking for the kernel code to be emailed, and needing it ASAP. He would get it.
Another study is Frank Abagnale who they made the Tom Hanks movie Catch Me If You Can about. People’s minds are on other things, and as Ant points out, that it is not on their jobs.
I think a good video. The sound is not very clear, but you can see normally.
You can just tell in shoes face (while lightly singing) that he’s having a blast. Actually it looks like he would have rather been at the Calzaghe/Jones fight.
That is the spice of life- the journey,not the destination.
How many people at the concert executed what you planned? Bought tickets, a room in Vegas, someone to enjoy it with. Everyone there.
How many have your kind of story to tell about the concert? One.
The road less taken, that is all the difference!
I like Madonna
Nice trick you applied, that was risky
great story. I really like the way you handled the situation
ha! That sounds like a night out with James Bond. At least it all worked out for you in the end.
Wow sounds like a lot of work.. What if you had simply remembered the correct date of the concert..you would have saved all that time looking for a seat..
lol , well you simply didnt give up and head back to the hotel , your very stubborn
Niiice. Did you go back the next night?
My question is, how do you slam $1300 down for this special night with the old lady…AND YOU DON’T EVEN LOOK AT THE DATE!!!
“As I look down in horror” haha
What if they didn’t let you in? Would you of stayed another night? Or are you too busy to do that.
Interesting post, I can’t believe you missed the date though!
Shoe,
That’s awesome, just took my son to a concert for his eighteenth birthday social engineered my way and his way not only backstage but to the party afterwards.
I am not what one would call a cool dad at 50 years old but my son never had a better time. Sitting around and partying with the musicians after the concert was over the top for him and he still keeps talking about it.
What I do find funny is your guts to post this information on a public forum. I’m glad you and your wife had a good time.
Regards,
David G.
Living it up indeed. This post shows you as an opportunist of note, something which reflects in your business acumen too. Ta for sharing!
Ha!!
Confidence will get you more out of life, than anything else!!
This is proof…
I wiish can come up like this dude….
just finished reading the whole post. thanks for sharing the video.
Wow what a screw up that is awesome. I can’t believe you had the dates wrong and had a plane, expensive rooms and everything and then your date is wrong. Funny story.
That was great!
– pulling a stunt like this makes you feel like you’re 16 again – doesn’t it?
We saw The Who last night in Los Angeles. Was a great show too, but compared to the Madonna concert the dancing on that stage was really, really bad
Very funny story Shoe next time I take you with me to a big concert with…
Have fun!
I wish you also take me………i want to see Madonna.heheh
Don’t know what to say more than great tips and story!
I’d like to go to her concert but it’s a looong way.
It looks like it was a fun show, but how old is Madonna now? 87…?
I think you messed up. Why even tear the tickets. The ushers are looking for the section and seat number not the date. ( or just fold that part over ) Then you could have sold the tickets on the street for at least face value for tomorrow’s show.
And I agree with an earlier poster…”how do you pay $1300 for something that you don’t know the date for?”
WOW
I have used this technique myself a few times too.
Here is another one.
The VIP front section sometimes has wristbands needed for entry. My buddy made it in there and I didn’t for Springsteen… so he tore his wristband off tucked in the battery area of his cell phone and then THREW hi phone over the crowd to where I was. I grabbed it and headed for the washroom for mini crazy-glue trick and then back inside to join him 4 feet from the stage.
theconcertaholic
Wow looks like a great concert and looks like you had a great time
I guess you wouldn’t have had enough time to glue your tickets back together and resell them on eBay!
as stated above I gave them to some friends
Nice experience…are you big fan of madonna…….???
Wow, good example of turning a mistake into a great experience. I wonder how many could apply this lesson to their everyday life?
Great story, happy ending – no harm, no foul.
Anybody worth a damn has to think quickly on their feet (or Shoe LOL) – you did just that.
Congrats for pulling it off and turning a sure disapointment for whatever reason into a success (isn’t that what you do?).
Only one thing wrong, I still would’ve kept the ticket and went again the next night! LOL
Then again, maybe that’s why I’m always in trouble….
L II
You did it all wrong. You should have exited the venue, gone back to the hotel room, and boned like banshees all night. Then extend your stay another day and go to the concert next night.
great story…..face hard situation with smile…good handling…
Great video Jeremy.
Well, at least you had tickets for another night, so it was all a wash. I probably would have done the same thing, to be honest.
I’m usually paranoid about having the wrong date on tickets (concert, airline). But what is worst is when I forget them at home (but there’s a solution to this, too, I discovered).
Love ’80s music and crank up the radio for some of Madonna’s songs still.
it would be interesting to see if he went there next night as well
Shoemoney singing!! That looked very fun.
Sweetness. Nice work. Now come join me in crashing the Super Bowl, Final 4 and World Series!
Shoe …, still waiting. You said the newsletter would have a $50 coupon towards facebook advertising but the code was invalid. You then said must have had too many people use it and that you were checking with them. Haven’t heard anything since.
Would really like to think this wasn’t just a stunt to get subscribers. But seeing you have no problem doing social engineering to gain something you aren’t entitled to, and have given no response that would make me think the code was ever legitimate, I’m not so sure it wasn’t just a stunt.
Free Kevin!
(sorry, had to say it, been a while since I got to use a Kevin Mitnick reference!)
Good moves though man! I have always loved the assumptions that are made by others and using them to your advantage. Definitely enjoyed the post. (looks like it was a good concert too.)
Hi, I appreciate the love, affection and care which you shown towards your family and your wife. Love the video.
Well, if the tickets were given to someone else to use the next night, technically you got 2 entries for the price of one. Well I guess the argument could be made you traded tickets basically- as the other guy had tickets to get in, just not the good ones. But if he sells or gives away his other tickets…..
I just don’t know man. I think if I did it I might look at it as “hey I paid to get in once and I went once” but then I don’t think I could give away the tickets. I would consider them used.
This same thing happened to me a Cars concert in 1980. Basically, someone swiped my tickets before the show. I had to pick up replacement tickets but someone was in my seat when we got to the show. Security showed up and hilarity ensued. Good fun. I wish I had bought Microsoft stock instead of those tickets.
I really enjoyed this story and I think it was very gentlemanly of you to use your skills to enjoy the concert with your wife! Now you should do a series on social engineering.
Very nice work! Glad things worked out for you. Sometimes if you just believe strongly enough that they will…they will
cool!!! hope someone will give me such gift!
Looks like other people were also doing the same thing.
Lights, camera, action… I’m a rockstar…. see the crowd’s reaction.
Nice vid, looks like you had an awesome time Shoe.
Great to see it worked for you
Thanks!
I like Madonna
nice story…
great story.
in high school I was obsessed with seeing MJ play his last game in Cleveland so I dressed up as a Wizards ball boy and got in.
I than really pushed my luck and sneaked into the locker room… got kwayme browns and bryon russels shoes… than met MJ.
It was all about acting like you belong.