October marked the first time that Comic-Con International’s relatively newly unveiled Member ID portal was utilized for a San Diego Comic-Con badge sale, and the day was marked with several errors and a short delay. Now, though, for some, the chaos continues.

Several people who were lucky enough to score a badge in Returning Registration (the October badge sale for those who had attended San Diego Comic-Con 2022 as a general attendee), received an e-mail today letting them know that their badges were cancelled due to “a web exploit that was used to purchase the badge(s)”.

So this is the email from @Comic_Con three of us received a short while ago, guilty with no opportunity to prove innocence and we didn’t even buy our own badges, it was someone else as part of a big badge buying group. Feel sick right now @SD_Comic_Con @EnglishmanSDCC pic.twitter.com/FkDlNg9RUS

— Mid-life Nerd (@716689) November 1, 2022

As the e-mail states, those who had their badges cancelled will not be able to e-mail or call Comic-Con International about the matter, although they can try again for badges during this Saturday’s Open Registration badge sale.

We reached out to Comic-Con International for comment and were told, “In our continuing efforts to provide a positive and equitable registration system, our post-sale analysis has revealed a very small number of users were able to exploit the system. To that end we have taken appropriate action to address this issue, and have implemented measures to curtail this from occurring again… We wish everyone good luck with Open Registration on Saturday, November 5, 2022.”

It’s unclear what the “web exploit” was, though there is much speculation online that it may have to do with the sharing of links. The new badge registration system utilizes QueueIt’s waiting room feature, and once you enter the waiting room, the link becomes unique and effectively tied to your “place” in line.

Comic-Con International’s website states, “If you are working in a badge buying group, make sure that you are only in a group with people you trust. Everyone in your group must operate within their own instance of the waiting room. If we detect that a participant has shared their waiting room information or URL, they will be removed from the registration queue and any transactions linked to it will be canceled immediately.”

So it’s possible that people shared their links — either on purpose or not (as one user noted, they posted a screenshot of their waiting room and someone stole the URL from that) — and were caught. There is also the possibility that many didn’t share their waiting room, and were either incorrectly flagged, or perhaps made some other faux paux according to Comic-Con.

For anyone who feels their badges were unfairly cancelled, the good news is that there is still hope on Saturday.

I just checked mine and it was canceled as well. I didn't link share. I purchased badges for myself and two others with no funny business involved. I bought them fair and square. What on earth is happening??? This isn't right.

— nfray20 (@nfray20) November 1, 2022

I found out about link sharing by having my link stolen LOL. I accidentally forgot to crop it out of a photo I tweeted. It took a minute for someone to find it before I could delete the damn thing.

— Spotted Garden Eel (@noeyyrose) November 1, 2022

Yes i bought my tickets with my link and for my friends didn’t share and still got mine cancelled no chance to prove my innocence

— Ana Armandy (ㅍ_ㅍ) (@imarmandymaslow) November 1, 2022