I had a similar experience, but was on the losing end of this scam.
Our group got tickets for a concert, then got rejected at the door because someone had already used the code. When our friend called her cousin, she told her that we should have gotten there earlier like she instructed. The cousin had listed the tickets on several sites before giving the paper tickets to us as a gift.
At least the yelling and profanity was a little bit entertaining to watch.