Social media sites must tackle event tickets printing scams

Trading Standards has warned sports and music fans to be more vigilant when buying tickets for events this summer. The warning comes after another surge in event tickets printing scams, with fraudsters using images found on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram to replicate authentic tickets.

The figures are shocking: almost 50% of all ticket scams last year were linked to social media. With huge international events, such as the upcoming European Championship and musical festivals including Glastonbury Festival, fraudsters will likely become increasingly active in the coming months.

More than £5m was lost by customers purchasing counterfeit tickets in 2015, an increase of more than 50% on the year before. This could be linked to the rise in people sharing photographs of their tickets on social media before attending an event. The ready availability of tickets for scammers to view online almost certainly makes it easier for them to fraudulently duplicate tickets.

Police have found that, on average, victims of 3,000 ticket scams reported over a six month period last year lost £444 per transaction. Over a quarter of counterfeit tickets sold on the internet in 2015 were for international sporting events and Premier League football games. Over a fifth of the fraudulent tickets were purchased on Facebook, 20% on Gumtree and 6% on Twitter.

Scammers are barely even trying to cover their steps, many using rudimentary duplicating techniques like photocopying to simply reproduce a single ticket over and over again. This means that many event attendees are turning up with a ticket that has the same barcode and ticket number which does not scan at the venue.

Cllr Simon Blackburn, chairman of the Local Government Association’s community board, is now calling on social media sites to more proactively attempt to tackle the issue at hand. He has asked they make an effort to crack down for the sake of people who are being tricked into purchasing tickets on their sites.

He also asked people to be extra vigilant when it comes to buying tickets for sold out events, as fraudsters are likely to be taking advantage of this and producing counterfeit tickets to exploit fans.

We provide a full range of colour print materials, including thermal tickets and custom-made secure ticketing solutions. To help tackle counterfeiting, our tickets can include creative and complex security designs, as well as event ticket printing with hologram, which are extremely difficult to reproduce.

Get in touch now to discuss our secure ticket printing options in more detail. We can arrange a free consultation to learn more about your event tickets printing requirements.

Reference: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36348757