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A summer of highly anticipated outdoor events including music festivals, the Euro 2024 football championship, the Olympics in Paris and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is likely to cause a surge in ticket fraud, according to financial crime experts.
Ticket scams are a type of purchase fraud that often trick victims into buying fake or non-existent items for sale on social media and online marketplaces. In the UK, cases of purchase fraud have soared by 43 per cent in 2023, according to trade body UK Finance.
“There is real and genuine overwhelming demand for some of these events,” said Simon Miller, director of policy for Stop Scams UK, a cross-industry fraud prevention group. “People are desperate to attend because they haven’t had an opportunity for many years . . . the last Olympics were on the other side of the world.”
The number of reported scam cases relating to concert tickets more than doubled last summer compared with the 2022 season, according to Lloyds Bank. Coldplay, Harry Styles and Beyoncé are among the most targeted artists. The bank this week issued an “urgent warning” about a wave of scams linked to Taylor Swift concert tickets as the pop star prepares to tour the UK for the first time in six years.
How do ticket scams work?
Most ticket scams start on social media, with sellers pretending to re-sell tickets for events. Tickets may never be received or might sometimes appear real, but not allow customers to enter venues at the door.
More sophisticated fraudsters also create fake ticketing websites to harvest customers’ data, experts said. Scammers will typically request that victims send money via a bank transfer. This makes it harder, in the absence of a chargeback mechanism, for them to retrieve their money.
Most individual scams are worth more than £100, according to Santander UK’s head of fraud Chris Hainsley. With concert and sporting events tickets, however, amounts can reach many times that as scammers take advantage of the hype and “fear of missing out” around events that can sell out within minutes.
Lloyds Banking Group said Taylor Swift fans have lost an average of £332 each in ticket scams, with some victims paying more than £1,000. The bank said scammers selling fake Taylor Swift tickets had targeted customers aged 25 to 34, and that 90 per cent had done so via Facebook.
Although the younger generation is more digitally savvy than their older counterparts, they are just as likely to be tricked by online fraud, said Paul Maskall, head of fraud at UK Finance. Overfamiliarity with social media interactions meant they could at times be less cautious than older people, while emotional attachment to a sports team or performing artist could lead victims to rush into making a payment without weighing the risks.
“There is a flavour of scam for every generation . . . the prerequisite for you to be vulnerable is that you are human and you are breathing,” he said.
How can I avoid becoming a ticket scam victim?
Experts warn to be cautious about deals that seem to good to be true. Purchasing a heavily discounted ticket to a sold-out event that could otherwise go for a much higher price might be a mistake, they warn.
StopScams UK said people looking to book tickets for football matches, other sporting events or concerts should prioritise official websites and payment methods such as escrow, which are less risky than paying individuals via bank transfer.
Campaigners also encourage consumers to stop and think before finalising their purchases as fraudsters often rely on the disappointment experienced by those who miss out on an event. Offers for tickets that come through via emails or texts are also a red flag, they say.
What are banks doing to fight this?
Santander UK said it had added additional steps before letting customers make bank transfers, including recommending that they do not buy from Facebook Marketplace unless they can pick up items in person.
Maskall said banks had done a great amount of work to make customers stop and think before they make instant payments. But social media companies, where scams most often start, should also do more to prevent fraud.
Maskall said search engines also had a responsibility in the genesis of ticket scams as they sometimes displayed fraudulent websites ahead of legitimate ones.
“Fake websites can be created very easily. You can go on and create websites as often as you like . . . By the time it is identified and brought down by law enforcement, that is sometimes the only window [fraudsters] need,” he added.
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