Eventbrite Says FL Vaccine Registration Fiasco Not Its Fault

FLORIDA — The national online event site, Eventbrite, is on the defensive after Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody took Eventbrite to task for permitting event schedulers to charge residents age 65 and older for coronavirus vaccine registrations.

On Thursday, Moody issued a consumer alert to Floridians warning them about online scams posted on Eventbrite that were charging residents to register to receive the vaccine.

"Scammers used the popular event website Eventbrite to pose as county health departments and take or attempt to take payments in exchange for COVID-19 vaccine appointments," Moody said.

While several county health department in Florida placed legitimate events on Eventbrite to help schedule senior citizens to receive the vaccine, many more were fraudulent events posted by scammers who charged residents to make the appointments.

The discovery of the fraudulent posts prompted county health departments throughout the state to issue warnings last week, explaining to residents that their appointments through Eventbrite were not valid and to call their credit card companies to stop payment on any registration fees.

“Consumer protection investigators and criminal prosecutors in my office are aggressively pursuing reports of scammers taking money in exchange for phony COVID-19 vaccine reservations," Moody said. "States are overseeing the free COVID-19 vaccine distribution rather than the federal government. To help manage appointment scheduling, several counties in Florida have turned to ticketing services like Eventbrite; however, no county is charging for vaccine reservations."

Brittany Hershkowitz, senior vice president of Burson Cohn & Wolfe, Eventbrite's public relations representative, issued a statement on behalf of Evenbrite, calling Moody's assertions "inaccurate and without merit."

"Our team has thoroughly investigated and not found any evidence of vaccine registration events being created with the intent to scam people," Hershkowitz said, speaking for Eventbrite. "We have confirmed the unofficial event listings in question, some of which included a fee, were the result of user error. More specifically, we have determined people mistakenly created new event listings when they meant to sign up for a time slot."

Hershkowitz said Eventbrite is closely monitoring and removing any unofficial listings for coronavirus vaccine sign-ups.

"We encourage anyone who finds potentially unofficial vaccine event listings on our platform to notify us," she said.

She said Eventbrite has produced a guide on Coronavirus Resources for Event Schedulers as well as FAQs about coronavirus vaccine events.

"This resource helps people identify and report unofficial vaccination events, which can be done through our Report this Event feature, located at the bottom of every event listing on Eventbrite," Hershkowitz said. "COVID-19 vaccine distribution is a critical initiative, and we are actively exploring how our platform can best support the effort to increase access to vaccines."

Moody did not respond directly to Eventbrite's challenge Monday but did say she won't tolerate anyone who takes advantage of the pandemic to scam residents.

Since Florida declared a state of emergency in March, Moody has issued more than 30 consumer alerts about emerging coronavirus scams.

These have included scams to steal residents' federal stimulus checks by impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents telling residents they needed their banking information before mailing them a check; several efforts to con businesses out of Payment Protection Program funds; attempts to sell fake tests; robocalls offering everything from miracle coronavirus treatments and cures to work-from-home schemes; and bogus phishing in which the website's URL appears to be that of a state agency or valid relief organization.

Click here to listen to an example of one of the robocalls residents have received.

“Times of crisis can bring out the best in people, as we are seeing with our brave medical professionals and first responders who are answering the call of duty in the face of this deadly pandemic," Moody said. "Sadly, they can also bring out the worst in people, like scammers exploiting the fear surrounding these challenging times to try and steal personal or financial information."

Unfortunately, Moody said, frightened and anxious people are ideal victims for these frauds.

“As long as COVID-19 remains a threat, scammers will attempt every trick in the book to exploit taxpayers and coerce them into disclosing personal information," she said. "Floridians must remain on high alert. Scammers will try to exploit the sense of urgency surrounding the coronavirus to swindle those trying to protect their health."

She urged residents to report coronavirus-related scams by calling her office at (866) 9NO-SCAM or visiting MyFloridaLegal.com.

To view the latest alerts and to stay up to date on coronavirus-related scams, click here.

In the meantime, the Florida Department of Health reported some good news on the coronavirus positivity front.

On Sunday, the DOH reported 11,640 positive cases of the coronavirus, a big reduction from last week when the state reported 19,094 new cases on Jan. 7 and Dec. 31 when the DOH reported a record number of 20,999 positive cases.

To date, 1,488,586 people have tested positive in Florida for the coronavirus. Of those, 65,796 have been hospitalized and 23,424 residents have died.

The current positivity rate for the state is 10.55 percent.

New Coronavirus Cases

Recent Deaths Due To The Coronavirus

Courtesy the Florida Department of Health

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