Mercury News - Score one for the San Francisco 49ers faithful.  The Bay Area couple and die-hard Niners fans who wired $5,900 to a Baltimore Ravens fan for Super Bowl tickets — only to get a taunting “Go Ravens! LOL!” FedEx package but no tickets in return — are going to Sunday’s big game after all.

After this newspaper’s story on the couple was read around the country Tuesday, Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard called Hayward resident Sharon Osgood to offer four free tickets for her, her boyfriend and other family members who got scammed. Hubbard also arranged for Osgood and her partner to have breakfast with NFL legend Troy Aikman.  Before word of that gift got out, the 49ers front office called with its own free-ticket offer. In all, the family has five tickets to the game — and good seats, too.  ”My heart literally was in my throat; it was fluttering — I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening.’ I can’t put into words how grateful I am,” Osgood, a 49-year-old utility worker, said between tears after getting the news.

A four-year season-ticket holder who has paid thousands of dollars to reserve seats in the team’s new Santa Clara stadium, Osgood is still out the $5,900 she and her family gave to a scammer they met on Craigslist, though she has filed a police report in an attempt to catch whoever did it.  The story made waves because of how oddly cruel it seemed, sparking arguments among fans who either took pity on Osgood  or blamed her for not being careful enough.

Scams happen all the time, but in this unusual case a man told Osgood and her boyfriend he was a tax attorney in Boca Raton, Fla. According to Osgood, the man said he was a Ravens season-ticket holder who couldn’t make the game because his wife was pregnant. They had four tickets and told her to wire $5,900 for them, which Osgood and her boyfriend agreed to after emailing, texting and talking on the phone with him over the course of a week.  On Monday, they got a package that had only a piece of paper with a picture featuring Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Ravens QB Joe Flacco. The message underneath read: “Enjoy the game!!!! Go Ravens!!! LOL.”

 

This story makes me legitimately ill.  Like sick to my stomach.  The fact that this is where we have come to as a society.  Where people are rewarded for being legitimate morons because everyone feels bad for them.  Take these two shitheads for example.   It’s not their fault they got scammed. Not their fault they found tickets on Craigslist from a tax attorney in Boca Raton who somehow had season tickets in Baltimore but couldn’t make the game because his wife was pregnant so just wire him $6K and we’re good.  Poor guys.  Happens to everyone.   Free tickets to the Super Bowl, boom, now dry those tears.    I mean what’s next?  Reimbursing everyone who sends money to Nigerian princes?  Paying everyone back who sends their bank accounts and social security numbers to distressed foreigners offering their large inheritance for safe passage into the US?    Bet these losers have signed up for so many “work from home for $5K a day!” jobs that they’re practically gazillionaires at this point.  Unreal.  Maybe I’ll just start being a braindead clueless idiot with zero common sense and wait for everyone to give me handouts.