Beware of Ticket Fraud for popular events

September 3, 2024

The BBC reported this month on the scale of Premier League football ticket fraud. These sell out quickly and criminals seek to take advantage of people looking for tickets or offers. They quote Lloyds Bank stating that around 6,000 fans fell victim to football ticket fraud last season. The average loss was £177 but some people lost more than £1,000.

Over 80% of these scams started on Facebook Marketplace or X.

Lloyds Bank also estimated that Taylor Swift fans lost more that £1 million to ticket scammers ahead of her UK tour.

These scams will always appear where there are high demand or sought after tickets for events. The safest way to get tickets is from reputable official sellers or resellers. I am sure that some of the over-inflated resale tickets for Oasis this week did not exist and criminals were looking to take advantage of the enormous demand for them.

If you've purchased a fraudulent concert ticket in the UK, you can:

Report it to the police: You can file a police report with your local law enforcement agency.

Report it to Action Fraud: You can report the scam to Action Fraud online at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

Contact your bank: If you made a payment to a scammer, you can contact your bank immediately to stop the payment.

Contact the event: You can check with the event to confirm the validity of your ticket.

Contact the professional associations: You can contact the professional associations for ticket sellers to make them aware of the issue.

You can also try to monitor your personal information to prevent misuse. Scammers may wait before using stolen data.

Some signs of ticket fraud include:

Tickets that sound too good to be true

Tickets that may not exist

Tickets that are sold multiple times to different buyers

Tickets that are purchased from a website that uses a PO box address or mobile phone number

Tickets that are purchased from a website that doesn't start with https or doesn't have a locked padlock icon in the browser's address bar