Scam Artists Get Over $9G’s With Fake DMX Concert

Though DMX’s tardy appearances and no-shows at scheduled performances have been well documented, the Yonkers rapper was the victim of a real concert scam in Springfield, Illinois this past weekend. Booking agents spent at least $1,325 to arrange DMX’s performance at the Orr Building on Illinois State Fairgrounds, according to Springfield’s State Journal-Register. The phony […]

Though DMX’s tardy

appearances and no-shows at scheduled performances have been well documented,

the Yonkers rapper was the victim of a real concert scam in Springfield, Illinois

this past weekend.

Booking agents

spent at least $1,325 to arrange DMX’s performance at the Orr Building on Illinois

State Fairgrounds, according to Springfield’s State Journal-Register.

The phony concert

brought in an estimated 500 people. But around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 5),

the crowd was told that DMX would not be performing and that two men posing

as the rapper’s brother and nephew allegedly stole the ticket money, State Journal-Register

reported.

Local concert promoters

Darryl Williams and Mike Williams, president of One in a Million Inc., said

they reserved the Orr Building on Saturday, hoping to schedule a concert by

rapper Lil’ Wayne.

A man who identified

himself as Robert Walker and posed as a Ruff Ryders manager contacted fairground

representatives about booking the DMX concert on that date and subsequently

contacted the Williams’ seeking help “promoting” the DMX concert.

The scam artists

hired local police, advertised on Kiss 99.7 and hired a limousine to take them

from their hotel, which they never had a room in, to the Orr Building.

Once there, they

conducted sound checks and began to stall. At one point, one of the men stepped

outside to make an “emergency phone call.”

He ordered a guard

to watch the area that ticket sales were being collected. A short while later,

the Williams’ noticed the money was gone and the men could not be found.

Ticket holders

were told they would be reimbursed by the venues where they purchased tickets.

However, the businesses

said they are unable to issue refunds because the total ticket money, roughly

between $8,000 and $9,000, was collected before the concert.

DMX was actually

in Arizona recording his upcoming album on Saturday. Label representatives could

not be reached for comment but stated that

DMX may record a radio statement to apologize to fans and clear up the matter.

The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the incident.