Speculative seat sales for Bruce Springsteen's upcoming concert have prompted an investigation from the New York State Attorney General's Office.

Three sites - StubHub, TicketNetwork and Vivid Seats - published listings from re-sellers even though tickets had not been made available.

"Speculative tickets harm both consumers and the ticket industry," a rep for the AG told Reuters.

"In many cases, consumers who purchase a speculative ticket do not receive the seats that were advertised and paid for."

The rep added that prices for the phantom seats had, in some cases, reached upward of $5,000.

A rep for Ticket Network says that the service has addressed the problem by removing the Springsteen tickets.

"We have voluntarily chosen to take down any inventory listed on our site for Bruce Springsteen concerts in New York until the public sale this Friday and urge any other sites that have them listed now to do the same."