You do not have tickets to see your college take on the number-one-ranked football team. So, you shell out $400 for a couple of tickets from a vendor located near campus. You get to the stadium, pull out your ticket, but wait ... DENIED ... you are left outside the gate.

This happened to about 500 people in Lubbock, Texas, last Saturday. Fans bought counterfeit tickets and were prohibited from entering, and did not see their Texas Tech Red Raiders beat Texas. The tickets were rejected when the barcode on the counterfeit tickets failed. That barcode fail-safe prevented - presumably - mass chaos inside.

Closer to home, the University of Missouri has not had an issue of counterfeit tickets, as of yet. Tickets are not printed with a barcode, so tickets aren't scanned at the gate. However, Mizzou does take precautions to prevent this type of fraud.

Single game tickets are printed "in house" meaning the MU Ticket Office is responsible for and tracks all MU Athletic tickets. Those tickets are marked with gold foil, which is difficult to replicate. Season ticket holders have further assurances: those tickets - printed out of state - have the foil, as well as, specific, detailed artwork. (If you have an issue with your ticket, you should report it to the MU Ticket Office at 800-CAT-PAWS.)

Ticketmaster software is used to print the Mizzou Athletic tickets. Ticketmaster also supplies tickets to concerts and events on campus. Those non-athletic tickets are printed with a bar code and are often scanned upon entering a venue.

Both Ticketmaster and the Mizzou Ticket Office stated that the only way to prevent purchasing a fake ticket is to make a purchase from a reputable dealer. They both also said that this issue needs to be evaluated often. Re-evaluating the ticket process would take time and be costly. That said, as the MU Football program continues to grow, more and more games are sold out. And next year, the Texas Longhorns come to Columbia. Will you have your ticket or could you be scammed?

In 2005, the St. Louis Cardinals partnered with Attorney General Nixon at a press conference to announce a validating system that would combat ticket counterfeiting.