Ticket fraud up 55% in the UK

Incidents of ticket fraud rose by 55 per cent in the UK last year, costing the British public £5.2 million, according to new research. Figures released by cyber-security awareness initiative Get Safe Online and the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) show that counterfeit or non-existent tickets to gigs and festivals accounted for 15 per cent of all reported ticket scams in 2015, second only to those for major sporting events, which made up over a quarter. More than a fifth of crimes were instigated through Facebook, and around the same amount on Gumtree, with six per cent via Twitter. Get Safe Online urged anyone buying tickets online to be “vigilant”, especially on social media sites, which it says are “increasingly being used by criminals to facilitate ticket fraud”.

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Exclusive Figures on Ticketing Fraud Released to Launch UK Awareness Campaign

• Nearly 3000 cases totalling £1.3m lost to ticket fraud over six months to end October 2015
• First time entertainment and sport ticket fraud statistics have been analysed separately
• Part of #lookfortheSTAR anti-fraud campaign
• Ticket agents and venues participating in industry-wide website and social media takeover
• Aims to raise public awareness of the STAR kitemark

Today organisations and individuals from across the British entertainment industry have joined forces on a new public awareness campaign to help combat ticket fraud. The #lookfortheSTAR anti-fraud campaign coincides with exclusive new figures released by national body Action Fraud revealing nearly £1.3 million was reportedly lost through entertainment and sport ticket fraud in the six months to the end of October 2015.  

With 2885 reports registered, that represents a median loss of over £200 per individual case. Notably, this is the first time ever that statistics have been made available for just entertainment and sport ticket fraud, providing a much more accurate view of fraud in the sector compared to past figures which have included areas such as airline tickets or holidays. A high number of these reports relate to two companies, Circle Tickets and GetSporting.com, and cover such events as Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, One Direction and the Rugby World Cup, as well as the key festival season.

Led by the Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers (STAR), the wider #lookfortheSTAR campaign comes ahead of the peak Christmas ticket-buying period, and aims to help reduce fraud by educating and encouraging customers to always look for STAR’s kitemark when buying tickets. This identifies members of STAR, who must sign up to a strict Code of Practice, and guarantees that the ticket is from a reliable source, much like buying a holiday through an ABTA or ATOL registered travel agent.

The initiative is backed by the Concert Promoters Association (CPA), National Arenas Association (NAA), and the Society of London Theatre, as well as ticket agents, performers, venues and others within the entertainment industry. Other supporters include Action Fraud, Metropolitan Police and City of London Police.

Websites of STAR members including Ticketmaster, See Tickets, TicketWeb, ATG Tickets, The Ticket Factory, Eventim and Ticketline, as well as theatre and concert venues across the country, are today featuring the campaign, including ‘homepage’ takeovers, putting the #lookfortheSTAR message in front of hundreds of thousands of customers as they log on to buy tickets.

Adrian Sanders, Chairman of STAR said: "As well as cheating the consumer, every case of fraud damages the reputation of Britain's vital entertainment and sporting industries. Buying tickets from a STAR kitemarked seller will give consumers the confidence that their purchase comes with certain guarantees that protect their rights.”

Rob Edwards, Managing Director, Eventim UK Ltd added: "This level of ticket fraud shows that as an industry we have to come together to help ticket buyers avoid ticket sellers who deliberately set out to defraud them. We are a proud member of STAR and believe the best advice for customers is to only buy tickets from companies that display the STAR kitemark, a symbol of trust that shows the company has signed up to the STAR Code of Practice."

STAR members and other supporters are taking part in a Twitter campaign, with members also promoting the campaign in their own e-newsletters, increasing the reach by millions.  

UK sees 500 ticket frauds reported in a month

UK Action Fraud has revealed it received more than 500 reports of ticket fraud within the last month. The fraud and internet crime reporting centre said the high figure was largely attributed to the number of UK festivals and high-profile concerts taking place over the summer. Of the 533 reports Action Fraud has received so far in June, 228 mentioned a company called Circle Tickets, which was advertising tickets for shows including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and AC/DC at inflated prices, and recently ceased trading online. The reports are now with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). NFIB said one third of crime reports related to ticket fraud in 2014 happened in the May-July period.

Ticket con leads to suspended prison sentence

Martyn Round (27) from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire has been convicted of fraud after failing to supply £1,500 worth of tickets for The Glastonbury Festival and Beyonce's UK Arena tour - the tickets never existed. Round targeted people who posted 'tickets wanted' notes on the Gumtree website. Round admitted five counts of fraud by misrepresentation and asked for eleven further offences to be taken into account. He received a 16 week prison sentence, suspended forone year, ordered to pay £760 compensation, £85 court costs, £80 victim surcharge and complete 100 hours of community service. He had previously been jailed for 20 months in 2011 on unrelated fraud charges.

Ticket resale laws and anti-fraud legislation in the U.S. and United Kingdom

a USEFUL UPDATE on this whole area can be found on www.ticketnews.com giving readers an reminder on both UK and US law.

Ticket frauders jailed

Three men who ran the fraudulent Xclusive ticketing scam have been jailed, one for eight years. The three defendants, Terence Shepherd, Alan Scott and Allan Schaverien ran various companies under the Xclusive banner that claimed to be able to provide elusive tickets for sold out sports and music events, in particular the 2008 Beijing Olympics and various music festivals. Over £5 million is believed to have been defrauded. A number of relatives of UK competitors at the 2008 Bejing Olympics were those left devastated when tickets failed to arrive. Shephard was sentenced to eight years in jail while Scott got seven years. Both were banned from being company directors for fifteen and ten years respectively. Schaverien, who had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting fraudulent trading, was sentenced for two years and eight months by Judge Martin Beddoe.

Reading ticket fraudster jailed

A ticket scammer who sold non-existent tickets to the 2008 Reading Festival has been jailed for three years after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering charges by a jury earlier this year. Christopher Bundza claimed to have tickets to sell for the music festival both via his own website and on eBay, but had no tickets, and was found guilty of eighteen separate charges, some relating to the ticket scam, others to a fraud he committed in relation to the purchase of his home. His former partner Kathryn White avoided jail after admitting four offences of fraud

Live Nation moves to stamp out ticket scams

Live Nation and Festival Republic have both said that they will support a plan put forward by the Police to try to combat the sale of non-existent tickets for festivals with both organizations saying that they will send out tickets for their big summer events earlier than normal. Despite the higher risk of counterfeit tickets, police say that a bigger problem these days is ticket agents who take money off music fans online with no intent of sending them any tickets, real or fake. Deputy Chief Superintendent Steve Head of the City of London Police told the BBC: "We believe that [posting tickets early] would stop a lot of people being the victims, because we'd be able to act on it quicker, convicting the kind of people we want to convict".