Ticket and website scams
Fake event and ticket websites: how to spot them, and what to do if you’ve paid
Copycat event and ticket websites cost UK fans millions every year. Here’s how they work, the signs that give them away, and what to do if you’ve already paid.
There’s a particular kind of excitement that comes with finally getting tickets for something you’ve been desperate to see. And there’s a particular kind of sinking feeling when, a few days before the event, you realise the tickets are never coming.
If that’s happened to you, you’re not careless and you’re certainly not alone. Fake ticket and event websites are built to look exactly like the real thing, and they’re aimed at people at the moment they’re most excited and least suspicious. This guide explains how they work, the signs that give them away, and what to do if you’ve already paid.
How big is the problem?
Bigger than most people think. In 2024, people in the UK reported 9,826 cases of ticket fraud to Action Fraud and lost £9.7 million between them, up by roughly half on the year before (Action Fraud). Concerts made up the largest share, followed by travel and sport. June was the worst month, as summer festivals and stadium tours went on sale.
Big tours bring out the scammers in force. Lloyds Bank estimated that at least 3,000 UK fans lost more than £1 million trying to buy Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, with around nine in ten cases starting on Facebook (Fortune). A year later the bank estimated that more than 5,000 people had lost over £2 million chasing Oasis reunion tickets, at an average of £436 each (ITV News).
It isn’t only gigs and festivals. Conferences and trade shows are copied too, and the people caught out are often professionals booking for work.
What a fake event website looks like
The clever ones look almost perfect. Scammers copy the real site’s logo, photos, wording and even its colours, then put it on an address that’s very nearly right. The difference might be a single letter, an extra hyphen, or a word like “tickets”, “uk” or the year added on the end.
In 2018, organisers of NIPS, one of the world’s biggest artificial intelligence conferences, had to email thousands of researchers to warn them about a copycat site. The real conference lived at nips.cc. The fake one sat at nips2018.org and collected registration and “group housing” details from people who thought they were booking the real thing (The Register).
Festival-goers have been hit the same way for years. Back in 2010, a 22-year-old from Perth called Smudge Thomson paid more than £300 to a site calling itself “EU Ticket Shop” for T in the Park tickets after missing out on the official sale. Two days before the festival nothing had arrived, and the “customer service” number turned out to be a premium-rate line that nobody answered (The Courier). It’s an old story, but almost every detail of it still happens today.
How the fakes find you
Fake sites don’t wait to be found. They come to you.
- Social media adverts and posts. Most of the big concert scams Lloyds looked at started on Facebook and Instagram, often in “buy and sell” groups or through sponsored posts.
- Search results. Some fake sites rank highly in search, or pay to appear at the top. Conference organisers have warned that lookalike sites offering registration and hotel rooms can sit above the real one.
- Emails, calls and messages. If your name appears in a published programme or exhibitor list, you may be contacted directly with an “offer” for rooms, packages or registration.
The common thread is timing. Scammers strike when an event is sold out, when tickets have just gone on sale, or when a deadline is close, because that’s when people act fastest.
The signs that give a fake away
No single sign proves a site is fake, but each of these should make you stop and check:
- The address isn’t quite right. Look at the web address carefully, letter by letter. Compare it with the address on the event’s official social media or emails.
- It’s selling something that’s sold out, or not on sale yet. If the official sale hasn’t opened, nobody genuine has tickets to sell.
- The price is too good, or oddly high. Both are warning signs.
- It wants a bank transfer, cryptocurrency or a payment app. Genuine sellers take cards. Being moved off the website to WhatsApp or a private message is a big red flag.
- You can’t tell who runs it. No company name, no full postal address, no landline, or only a contact form.
- It feels rushed. Countdown timers, “only 3 left” banners and pressure to pay now.
Glastonbury put it simply when it warned fans ahead of its resale: “Please do not risk falling victim to touts, bogus operators or fake promotions” (Rolling Stone UK). If you’re in any doubt, go back to the event’s own website or social media and follow their links to the official sellers.
How to buy safely
A few habits make a huge difference:
- Start from the official source. Go to the event’s own website, then follow its links to the authorised ticket sellers. Don’t start from an advert or a search result.
- Check the seller. For gigs and theatre, buying from a member of STAR, the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, gives you a code of practice and a way to resolve disputes (STAR advice).
- Pay by credit card if you can. If a single ticket costs more than £100 and you pay by credit card, you may be able to claim from your card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. With a debit card, ask your bank about a chargeback (Which?).
- Never pay by bank transfer to a stranger. Once the money’s gone, it’s very hard to get back.
What to do if you think you’ve been scammed
First of all, take a breath. This happens to careful, clever people every single day, and acting quickly gives you the best chance.
- Call your bank or card provider straight away, using the number on the back of your card or on their official website. Ask whether they can stop or recover the payment, and about Section 75 or a chargeback.
- Report it. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, report fraud to Report Fraud, the police service that replaced Action Fraud, at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101.
- Report the website. The National Cyber Security Centre can investigate and take down scam websites. You can report one through its suspicious website service. Paste the address in rather than visiting it again.
- Report the email or text. Forward scam emails to [email protected] and scam texts to 7726, free of charge.
- Tell the event organiser. They’ll want to warn other fans, and they may already know about the site.
If you organise events
If you run an event, fake websites aren’t just your attendees’ problem. They damage your reputation, flood your inbox with angry emails, and can leave people turned away at the gate.
The best defence is to find the fakes early and make the real thing easy to check. That means watching for new websites that look like yours, publishing your official sellers clearly in one place, and giving people a simple way to ask “is this really you?” before they pay. It also means reporting fakes quickly, with good evidence, to the companies that host them and the services that warn web browsers.
You can’t stop every scammer from trying. But you can make sure that when someone does, your fans find out in hours rather than at the gate.
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. If you have lost money, contact your bank straight away and report it to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040 (in Scotland, Police Scotland on 101).
