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A new report led by cybercrime expert Nick Hawe reveals that more than a quarter of Brits have bought fake tickets on social media.
According to the report, commissioned by viagogo and leading internet safety website Get Safe Online, 26 per cent of Brits surveyed admitted to buying tickets on social media because they appeared cheap, only to discover they’d paid for fakes. This cost them an average of £258 each.
The survey also revealed that more than half of people asked (55 per cent) said they couldn’t confidently determine whether a ticket listing on social media is genuine. In the past year, one-in-four Londoners have been scammed on social media.
Last year, Michael Oxley lost £700 to scammers after trying to buy Oasis tickets on Facebook. “The person messaging us was so convincing. They asked us to pay in instalments and we trusted them, thinking we were dealing with someone we knew but it turned out their account had been hacked by a scammer so the tickets never arrived. Realising we’d been scammed was heartbreaking,” Oxley explained. “We didn’t just lose £700, we lost something we were really looking forward to sharing together. Seeing how disappointed the family was was the worst part. You’re left feeling embarrassed, angry and foolish but more than anything, just sad. I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that.”
Former police detective Hawe is worried the Government’s proposed price cap on reselling tickets would not solve the problem. In Ireland, where caps already exist, fraud rates are nearly four times higher than in the UK. In September, the NFL took to Dublin’s Croke Park for a match between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers. However, with no official resale platform, fans turned to social media which resulted in an 80 per cent spike in ticket scam victims and a 48 per cent rise in losses, with fans aged between 17 and 24 the most affected.
“Ahead of a stellar year of live events it’s alarming to see that 55 per cent of Brits aren’t able to spot a ticket scam,” Hawe said in a statement.
Elsewhere, the survey reports that 70 per cent of people would only buy tickets from a platform offering consumer protections such as refunds or replacement tickets but nearly half of Brits (45 per cent) said they’d risk spending money on potentially fake tickets.
Get Safe Online has shared a number of ticket buyer tools that will help fans stay safe when buying tickets online.
