tf2godz said:
no expert in law but I'm pretty sure that is fraud, so these people actually committed a crime. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure what these people did was illegal.
Whether it's fraud would really depend on how smart they would be about selling the tickets. All they would really have to do is put in legalese saying "no refunds", and then they could claim that they were totally going to do this convention but they had to cancel for (take your pick of excuses). Except for someone posting that dumbass post, there's no real way to prove they are lying.
It would also depend on where this "convention" was going to be held. If they were going to claim it was actually being held at a convention center, and then they didn't bother trying to actually rent space, then yes, they could probably get sued. But if they just said "we're going to meet at this gazebo in this public park", then probably not.
It's sort of like going to a meet-up via meetup.com If I opt to go to a meet-up and no one shows up, I can't sue them to make them pay for my parking and gas, because there's no guarantee anyone is going to show, and even the coordinator can just say "yeah sorry I was sick", and I can't prove otherwise.