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One in twelve festival tickets a fake
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 7 July 2010
One in twelve festival tickets sold in the UK last year were fake, according to an unpublished research report from the Office Of Fair Trading, revealed by The Guardian this week.
The number of fake music festival tickets on the market seems to have risen dramatically in recent years, partly because of the boom in consumer interest for festival tickets in general, and partly because of the world wide web, which allows fraudsters to reach bigger audiences, and to masquerade behind legitimate looking websites, often using official sounding web addresses. At the same time, festival promoters have become better at spotting fake tickets, which means an increasing number of festival-goers who buy tickets from dodgy providers will be turned away at the gate. Some promoters have also become more proactive in warning consumers about fake ticket sellers, and in pointing fans towards legitimate agencies.
The Guardian quote a rep from the OFT’s consumer helpline Consumer Direct, who confirms: “We estimate that one in twelve of the fans are caught out by fake [ticket] websites. And we now know that the average loss to each fan is £80”.
As previously reported, the OFT and the live music industry have collaborated on the Just Tick It campaign, which aims to help festival fans identify the legitimate sellers from the fake.
Relaunching that for the 2010 festival season, Live Nation’s COO of UK Music, John Probyn, recently told reporters: “[The sale of fake tickets] is known to be linked to organised crime. We have known about fake-ticketing websites for some time but in the past three years [fake ticket selling] has developed into a big business. Every time we have tickets go on sale for a festival or a big show, you only have to do a quick search of the internet and can bet that half the sites that look official are, in fact, fakes”.
Meanwhile the OFT’s Michele Shambrook added: “We really hope that the Just Tick It campaign can make a big difference to the number of people being scammed when trying to buy tickets this summer. We urge everyone to double check that a website is legitimate before parting with any money online”.
The OFT has published some specific information for people worried about potential ticket fraudsters, which can be read at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ticketscams.
