festival ticket fraud

[rhysieg]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3479857/Gig-fakes-rob-Brits-of-25m-a-month.html

the sun is reporting that sham festival websites are taking in a whopping 2.5 million a month, i never realised how big a problem this is!! i know of it happening and know a person who has been scammed, but bloody hell, i didnt realise it was that big.

i know to always use renowned ticket outlets, but some unlucky people will just google it and, not really having a clue, buying tickets from a random link.

efests, have you thought about pinning a list of official outlets in the forums to help people from being scammed? or some kind of list or warning somewhere maybe more noticeable around the site?

i'm disgusted in how many people seem to be getting ripped off, its expensive enough and most people will probably end up being too strapped for cash after getting ripped off to replace the ticket they were going to buy... its very sad.

went into a bit of a rant, sorry

[lifelessfool]

Bloody hell that is shocking! I always use proper ticket outlets and have only ever used ebay once as latitude tickets were goin for 40 pounds, and its nice to get one over touts. But at work (ticketmaster) you'd be suprised at the amount of people who ring up saying they have bought from seatwave etc, yet the price on the ticket (owned by ourselves) is significantly less. I guess if you buy tickets you just assume everyone is much like yourself and knows theres about 4 or 5 good outlets.

[Ed209]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3479857/Gig-fakes-rob-Brits-of-25m-a-month.html

the sun is reporting that sham festival websites are taking in a whopping 2.5 million a month, i never realised how big a problem this is!! i know of it happening and know a person who has been scammed, but bloody hell, i didnt realise it was that big.

i know to always use renowned ticket outlets, but some unlucky people will just google it and, not really having a clue, buying tickets from a random link.

efests, have you thought about pinning a list of official outlets in the forums to help people from being scammed? or some kind of list or warning somewhere maybe more noticeable around the site?

i'm disgusted in how many people seem to be getting ripped off, its expensive enough and most people will probably end up being too strapped for cash after getting ripped off to replace the ticket they were going to buy... its very sad.

went into a bit of a rant, sorry

[Binky]

the internet is used to scam millions every day so why not target festivals after all with big ticket prices these days

ok not about actual fraud but touts

seems theres move afoot to try and stop it see herebut shame to see Guy Garvey endorsing touts

theres nothing to stop the big festies going the same way as glasto thoughjust seems they can,t be bothered and are happy to see people ripped off

Edited March 22, 2011 by Binky

[Gre]

Gotta love this quote from that article;

Get Me In, which is part of Ticketmaster, also criticised the proposal.

"Any attempts to regulate the market would reduce protection, transparency and choice for consumers," a spokesman said.

[Paul ™]

Wouldn't surprise me if Ticketmaster keep some of their ticket sales aside to put on Getmein.com anyway

[Greeny_Musicchild]

I don't understand how they can justify having even a 10% mark up allowed in any legislation. Tickets are worth what they're worth, and profit obtained after the first purchase is expliotation.

[Paul ™]

wouldn't surprise you...??

they've already been caught doing it

[harderfaster]

Wouldn't surprise me if Ticketmaster keep some of their ticket sales aside to put on Getmein.com anyway

[Gre]

cos the regulators in this country would come down on them like a ton of bricks?

[Buglet]

the internet is used to scam millions every day so why not target festivals after all with big ticket prices these days

ok not about actual fraud but touts

seems theres move afoot to try and stop it see herebut shame to see Guy Garvey endorsing touts

theres nothing to stop the big festies going the same way as glasto thoughjust seems they can,t be bothered and are happy to see people ripped off

[Binky]

To be fair, Guy Garvey did in fact say that if people had legitimately bought tickets for a gig that they then couldn't attend then they should be allowed to make a profit of 50%.

I don't really see that as 'endorsing touts' who intentionally but tickets that they never intend to use and sell them on for the highest price they can get.

If you want to slate the guy for his opinion that's fair enough, but misrepresenting him like that seems like a bit of an eye grabbing falsehood .... which brings us on to the fact that the original article was n the sun....

[Binky]

surprised on this thread that no one mentions the biggest legal scam of ticket buying these days that is called a Booking Fee