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Con Artist Scamming Local Music Lovers

Man Wanted For Impersonating Pearl Jam Member

POSTED: 9:52 am MDT August 27, 2004
UPDATED: 10:25 am MDT August 27, 2004

A con artist is making the rounds in Colorado and he's preying on music lovers, police said.

In his latest ploy, John Harlan is allegedly impersonating a member of the band Pearl Jam and offering to give away free benefit concert tickets.

John Harlan
Las Vegas Metro PD
Police say John Harlan tells people he's a member of Pearl Jam.

The fake rock star said he has great seats and will offer it to the victim if he or she just picks up the service fee, police said.

"He said something about free tickets, T-shirts, boxes, then asked me if I had the money to cover the surcharge," said Tim Moore, who almost fell for the scam.

But that deal sounded good to Natalie Schumacher, a single mother who has to watch her budget.

She said the imposter was very convincing when she met him two weeks ago, so she gave him $43 to treat herself to a concert at Red Rocks on her birthday.

"He took my money and then called me on my birthday," said Schumacher. "He called me the next day to wish me a happy birthday and said, 'Are you ready for the show?'"

"So I went out to Red Rocks ... but I knew before I got there that I had been scammed," said Schumacher.

She said she would never buy tickets like that again.

"Next time, I'm going to pay the surcharge and go through Ticketmaster," Schumacher said, laughing at herself.

Others in Denver told 7NEWS that they've been approached by Harlan as recently as Wednesday.

"He was good, he knew absolutely everything and anything about Pearl Jam," said Demetri Fefes.

Police say he's a one-man crime wave working his way around the country. Harlan is wanted for allegedly pulling this same scam in Las Vegas, New York, Miami and New Mexico.

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