GUILDERLAND — Earlier this week, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office arrested a New York City resident for selling fake concert tickets through an online classified listing.
The arrest took place at the entrance to Dick’s Sporting Goods in Crossgates Mall, where the counterfeiter, Cy Ismael Rivera, 23, agreed to meet with an undercover investigator, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office was conducting an undercover operation into fake concert ticket sales in and around area malls. The investigators contacted Rivera through his Craigslist listing, in which he claimed to have tickets to Jason Aldean’s Burn It Down Tour; the tickets were supposed to be for Aldean’s performance at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Aug. 29, the release says.

The investigators ordered six concert tickets from Rivera, who asked to meet the purchaser at Dick’s, the release explained; the undercover investigator met with Rivera and purchased the tickets, at which point, Rivera was taken into custody.

The tickets were confirmed to be fake, the release said.

Rivera was charged with six counts of third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, third-degree trademark counterfeiting, and attempted petty larceny, all misdemeanors; and first-degree scheming to defraud, a felony.

Rivera was arraigned on Aug. 29 in Guilderland Town Court, and is now being held at Albany County’s jail without bail.

Sheriff’s investigators believe Rivera is part of a large-scale organization operating out of New York City, and ask the public to contact the Albany County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation unit tip line at 720-8075 if they have information, or have been a victim in this case.

— Lisa Nicole Lindsay