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1500 people fall for police fake ticket trick

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 4 April 2017

The City Of London Police say that they tricked more than 1500 people into buying fake tickets for live events over the weekend. Or they could have done if they weren’t so bloody law-abiding. A campaign of Facebook adverts aimed to highlight the issue of ticket fraud.

Working with Action Fraud Get Safe Online and the Society Of Ticket Agents And Retailers, a series of flash sale ads purporting to be for a fake secondary ticketing site called Surfed Arts were run on Facebook. The ads offered tickets to see sold out shows by Adele in London, Ed Sheeran in Manchester, Iron Maiden in Birmingham, Coldplay in Cardiff and Bruno Mars in Leeds, targeting fans of each artist in the relevant city.

Upon clicking the link, those who fell for the scam instead were shown a page advising them on how to avoid being tricked in future. Most likely to click the link were apparently women aged over 65 in London. Although, actually, crime stats show that it’s men in their 20s who are most likely to hand money over to fraudsters in exchange for non-existent tickets.

STAR chief exec Jonathan Brown commented: “These figures demonstrate that ticket fraud is a continuing problem and that, too often, people are misled by fake promises. Fraudsters prey on the anticipation and excitement that surround our fantastic sports and entertainment industries. It is vital that customers take care when buying tickets. Protect yourself by following safe ticket-buying advice and by taking time to research the authorised sellers for an event before parting with any money. STAR and its members are committed to providing customers with high standards of service and information and to playing our part in helping you avoid the fraudsters”.

You can check out the Surfed Arts website for yourself here.