Fans have long suspected the game was rigged against them when it came to buying the best seats to big concerts and ball games. They just didn’t know how. Tickets to Yankees playoff games, the Rose Bowl and rock concerts vanished within seconds of going on sale only to turn up on websites like StubHub and eBay, where fans must pay double or triple the original value.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Newark unveiled a 43-count indictment today that said, basically, the fans were right all along.

The document outlines a massive ticket-buying conspiracy run by four computer savvy officials of a Nevada company, Wiseguy Tickets Inc. Using software to create an army of online drones, the firm allegedly muscled out legions of fans trying to buy tickets for shows including Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Miley Cyrus. It all happened at lightning speed. And it brought millions in profit to Wiseguys, authorities said.

"These defendants tried to put themselves at the head of the line to get as many premium seats as possible," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Entertainment industry officials said they were astounded by the scope and audacity of the alleged fraud. Between 2002 and 2009, Wiseguys sold more than 1.5 million tickets nationwide, earning upwards of $25 million in profits, authorities said. The venues stretched from East Rutherford to Los Angeles. And the tickets were always for the best seats in the house: including Broadway productions of "The Producers" and "Wicked," and tapings of the television show "Dancing with the Stars."

For fans, it meant having to pay handsomely for good seats, authorities said. Wiseguys allegedly sold their tickets at a steep mark-up to brokers, who in turn sold them at an even steeper price to fans, according to the 60-page indictment. "Ultimately, we think this crime was committed out of greed," said Erez Liebermann, an assistant U.S. attorney.

A lawyer for one of the men, Wiseguys founder and co-owner Kenneth Lowson, said the company offered a service that is the modern-day equivalent of sleeping out all night outside box offices to buy tickets for a hot concert. "And the feds have decided to criminalize that," said the attorney, Mark Rush.

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Today’s indictment follows a series of state and federal investigations sparked, in part, by frustrated fans. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation to tighten regulations for online ticket sales and said he was pleased that Wiseguys was charged. But the congressman said he doubted the firm acted alone. "There’s a much bigger conspiracy here." Pascrell said. "The regular fan doesn’t have a chance."

Fans have long blamed Ticketmaster — now called Live Nation Entertainment — for online ticket-buying headaches. But Fishman today said the company had logged formal legal complaints about Wiseguys’ tactics and was essentially a victim of the alleged scheme. Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.

To execute their alleged scheme, authorities say Wiseguys cracked the security systems that ticket sellers use to block online attacks. The backbone of those systems is often a series of misshapen letters and numbers that ticket buyers must retype before making a purchase. Those distorted characters — called "captchas" — essentially force attackers to decipher images readable by humans, but supposedly not computers.

But with help from a computer programmer in Bulgaria, Wiseguys created a far-flung computer network that could read and retype those squiggly letters, authorities said. The instant tickets went on sale, Wiseguys flooded the websites of Ticketmaster and other companies with automated programs that impersonated individual buyers and scooped up every good seat faster than the click of a mouse, authorities said.

For a July 2008 Bruce Springsteen show at Giants Stadium, Wiseguys managed to land half of the 440 floor tickets closest to the stage.

To make it appear the tickets were bought by individual fans — and not en-mass by a middleman — Wiseguys tried to amass 100,000 Internet addresses and hundreds of fake emails. They also collected reams of credit card numbers from brokers that later sold the tickets to fans. Fishman declined to say today whether those brokers would face charges, too.

Three of the four California men named in the indictment surrendered to the FBI today. Lowson was ordered held by U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shipp pending a bail hearing. His partner, Kristofer Kirsch, 37, was released on $1 million bail. An employee Joel Stevenson, 37, was released on $500,000 bail.

Lawyers for the men said they would plead not guilty at an arraignment later this week. They are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and computer crimes. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison, said Seth Kosto, an assistant U.S. attorney. A fourth man, Faisal Nahdi, 36, is in Indonesia and expected to surrendered, authorities said.

"The allegations in this indictment represent a scheme orchestrated through technology to cheat the public and circumvent fair business practices in the entertainment industry," said Edward Kahrer, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark office.

By Peggy McGlone and Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger