Ticket scams: 'Off-the-scale' demand fuelling fraudsters

Huge demand for gig tickets is fuelling scammers who "prey on desperation", a Northern Ireland concert promoter has said.

Almost £300,000 was lost to ticket fraud in Northern Ireland last year, according to police figures.

One person reported losing £600 trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and promoters are urging people to buy from reputable sites only.

Joe Dougan from Shine, which organises big events such as Belsonic, said these scams seem to be on the rise.

"I think it's on account of the demand for concert tickets, which is going up.

"These big shows like Taylor Swift and Coldplay - I've been asked a hundred times at this point if I know where I can get Taylor Swift tickets."

'Desperate mums and dads'

Swift's Eras tour broke the record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day, at 2.4 million.

It has been six years since she toured the UK and Ireland.

Mr Dougan described the demand to see the star as "off the scale".

"I'm not surprised there are a lot of desperate mums and dads out there trying to get tickets for this," he said.

"Unfortunately these scammers prey on people's desperation and it's sad to see because I think overall it devalues the trust that people have in the concert industry.

"The vast majority of concerts don't sell out and the ones that do you can get through authorised re-sellers."

Swift's Northern Ireland fans are not alone in been tricked into handing over cash for non-existent tickets.

Lloyds Bank said that since the Eras tour tickets went on sale last July, more than 600 of its UK customers have come forward to report that they had been scammed.

The bank said the level of ticket fraud reported by Swift's fans was "significantly more than for any other music artist".

The average amount lost by each Lloyds victim was £332, but some reported losing more than £1,000.

The bank said Coldplay, Harry Styles, and Beyonce were among the other major artists whose fans were most commonly targeted by scammers last summer.

'Seemed pretty legit'

A 19-year-old Becky Hill fan told BBC News NI she was scammed after taking to a Facebook group in an attempt to secure tickets for a sold-out Belsonic gig.

Hannah Bowron, from Newtownabbey, used a group called "Ticketmaster Tickets" after Hill's concert sold out from official outlets.

"There seemed to be thousands of people posting on here (the Facebook group) from all over the UK - it seemed pretty legit," she said.

"Lots of people got back to me, many of them that I knew were fake accounts.

"But there was a woman, who commented saying she had two tickets, she was with what I thought was her child in her profile picture. So I assumed it was real," she said.

The account asked Ms Bowron via private message to transfer a £30 deposit to secure the ticket.

"I was excited, so I sent her the deposit, then she just stopped replying.

"Then I realised it had been a scam.

"It was really annoying because it was the second time this had happened to me.

"It has made me be much more safe and careful online," she added.

'Fans are being exploited'

Data from Action Fraud showed £6.7m was lost to ticket fraud across the UK last year.

In Northern Ireland, 299 scam reports were recorded, amounting to a total loss of £291,344, but not everyone who fell victim to fraudsters will have reported it to the authorities.

PSNI Ch Supt Gerard Pollock, who chairs the ScamwiseNI Partnership, said "avid fans are being exploited, often by organised criminals".

"We've had reports of people buying tickets through social media platforms, thinking they're getting the real deal only to find out the money they've shelled out is to someone who isn't genuine, and the tickets they've paid hundreds of pounds for never existed in the first place," he added.

"With some big names on tour this summer, demand is always high for those concerts which have, in reality, been sold out months in advance."

He urged people to only buy tickets from authorised ticket sellers and resellers.

Lloyds Bank's fraud prevention director, Liz Ziegler, said: "It's easy to let our emotions get the better of us when we find out our favourite artist is going to be performing live, but it's important not to let those feelings cloud our judgement when trying to get hold of tickets.

"Buying directly from reputable, authorised platforms is the only way to guarantee you're paying for a genuine ticket."