Burning Man to investigate hacks, cancel 200 tickets

Burning Man executives claim that they are going to cancel as many as 200 tickets after investigating reports that hackers infiltrated the sale last week.

The nonprofit announced that an estimated 200 people "backdoored" the ticket sale.

Some Burners did so only by re-clicking the link sent to them via the email sent to them automatically after registering the week prior, according to social media accounts.

One Burner who bragged on Twitter that he had discovered a secret code said that he was only joking, a kneeslapper that few other Burners ended up appreciating.

Burning Man spokeswoman Megan Miller confirmed Wednesday evening that the organization was investigating rumors of a system hack, but she did not say how the organization could trace the method by which buyers acquired their tickets.

"The good news (for us, not them) is that we can track them down, and we're going to cancel their orders," a statement from Burning Man said on Thursday.

Miller did not return calls for further information Thursday or Friday.

The statement elaborated on some of the other issues that surfaced during the sale, which lasted about one hour.

In that time, about 80,000 people were vying for 40,000 tickets. Because each buyer could purchase up to two tickets, only 21,500 people bought the total amount of tickets available Wednesday.

Burners were upset Wednesday for a variety of other reasons, including the five-minute pause that stalled the sale but supposedly did not interrupt anyone's place in line, Miller said.

Burners were also vexed at the request for donations on the Burning Man website following the close of the sale, a slap in the face for some.

"Honestly, that was a mistake -- we didn't realize that option would still be available once the sale ended. We totally understand how that came across as adding insult to injury, and we feel badly about it," the statement said.