Jason Koebler, writing for 404 Media, looks into the shady world of Ticketmaster.

Olivia Rodrigo is using a system very similar to the one used by Taylor Swift, which Ticketmaster calls “Verified Fan.” This is essentially a weighted lottery in which people have to pre-register for a chance to buy tickets. Ticketmaster then uses an algorithm that is nominally tied to previous buying history, the age of an account, and the account’s geographic location to determine whether that account can have a chance to buy tickets for specific shows.

The problem with this is that normal people have one Ticketmaster account tied to one email address and can therefore enter this lottery one time for one specific show. Serious ticket scalpers have many accounts (hundreds or thousands) tied to many different email addresses, with credit cards all over the country and can enter the lottery as many times as they want. As Joseph and I showed earlier this year, there is a black market for “aged” Ticketmaster accounts that are years old and might have a better chance of winning the Verified Fan lottery. Scalpers can buy “100 Phone Verified Ticketmaster Accounts” for $500 from a scalper-focused website, or they can buy “1,000 Phone Verified Ticketmaster Accounts.”

This, obviously, should be illegal.