The Ultimate Comic “Con”

Shazaam! It's a scam!

The gig is up. Two men pled guilty to selling fake Comic-Con memberships in a San Diego Courtroom on Monday.

Prosecutors said Farhad Lame and Navid Vatankhahan, both from Los Angeles, photocopied badges and passed them off to consumers looking for last minute memberships on Craigslist.

The two men were arrested in July, after two of their victims tried to enter the convention center using the phony badges, the City Attorney's office said. The women paid $120 each investigators said, for what they believed were two-day passes for the convention.

Lame and Vatankhahan were both sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay a fine of $750 each, complete 10 days of public work service, and pay restitution to the victims.

The City Attorney's office warns people who buy things over the Internet to proceed with caution.

"The old adage 'if it seems too good to be true, it usually is' applies more than ever to the Internet," said Goldsmith. "This is particularly true when you don't know the identity of the seller, as is often the case with websites such as Craigslist.org," added Goldsmith.
 

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