OFT targets online ticket scams
Just Tick It campaign aims to highlight bogus music and sports ticket websites, says Office of Fair Trading
Music and sports stars are lending their support to a campaign to protect fans from online ticket scams, as research reveals almost one in 10 buyers has been ripped off by a bogus site.
Singer Kate Nash, Dave Rowntree from Blur, and England rugby player Steve Borthwick are among those backing the drive by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to raise awareness of the issue and encourage consumers to be more vigilant in checking website deals.
The research revealed that the main reason for using scam websites was desperation to get hold of tickets for an event. Victims lost an average of £80, but in more serious cases fans have been fleeced for hundreds of pounds.
Music fans have recently suffered from an explosion in the number of fraudulent gig ticket websites, with fraud experts estimating that 30,000 people in the UK were ripped off last year.
According to Melvin Benn, head of Festival Republic, which organises the Reading and Leeds festivals, 5,000 people were turned away from the events last year because their tickets were not valid.
Many people are buying tickets that never arrive. One firm that left music fans high and dry was SOS Master Tickets whose website was taken down after it took money for tickets for the 2008 V Festival that never arrived.
The OFT's Just Tick It campaign, being launched today, offers a checklist on the government's Consumer Direct site to help ticket buyers differentiate between bogus and legitimate websites.
Research by the OFT shows that more than four in 10 (44%) people who had fallen victim to a scam had been anxious to secure tickets. Almost a third (32%) were tricked by the legitimate and professional appearance of the websites. And after realising they had been duped, one in five were then too shy to report it.
Platinum-selling artist Kate Nash said: "I remember last year a friend of mine bought a ticket for a festival that he couldn't really afford anyway. He's a student and the tickets were around £200. He lost his money and his friends who had bought legitimate tickets went without him.
"I think it's disgusting really, scamming people who want to go to gigs and have a good time. They just get ripped off and disappointed, turning something positive into something negative."
Mike Haley of the OFT said: "We're working hard with other law enforcement agencies to crack down on these types of crimes and consumers can help themselves to avoid falling victim by knowing how to spot a scam site."
Many of the bogus sites tend to be hosted outside the UK, with Hungary a favourite safe haven. In many cases the Metropolitan Police has written to the web-hosting companies and domain registrars to ask them to pull the plug, but these requests are often refused.
And even when the authorities succeed in getting sites shut down the fraudsters behind them often move elsewhere and relaunch with slightly different names. Bogus sites often carry all the official branding, stolen from legitimate sites, and have plausible web addresses, which is often enough to fool people into thinking they are real.
Last weekend, a number of fans of rock band Muse were turned away from the group's two open-air shows in Teignmouth, Devon, after buying tickets from museboxoffice.com which either never arrived or never existed. The website is still live and offering tickets for the band's forthcoming European shows. But it gives no contact number or postal address (people can only get in touch via email) and hides behind a US company called InvisiHosting, which aims to "provide anyone with $3 and an internet connection with the ability to communicate their ideas in a 100% anonymous fashion".
Meanwhile, a number of unauthorised websites are already offering tickets to next year's Reading, Leeds, T in the Park and V festivals. Organisers of these events are urging music fans not to buy from sites such as readingfestivaltickets2010.com, vfestival2010.net and Titp2010.com. However, when the Guardian looked this week all three sites came up as "sponsored links" on Google.
In a statement a spokesman for museboxoffice.com said: "After looking into your allegations regarding the Teignmouth shows we can confirm that 98% of our customers experienced no difficulties at all with their tickets. A very small number of cases has indeed been identified where refunds may be applicable and we are currently looking into those cases as obviously if no tickets were received then a full refund will be applied of all money paid within 14 days."
Case study
Deborah Mackin lost more than £300 last year after buying four tickets for a Radiohead concert which were intended as a Christmas present for her best friends.
She bought them in December 2007 from the now defunct London Ticket Shop website – not realising it was bogus – when she was unable to find tickets elsewhere for two London concerts in June 2008.
Deborah, aged 46 from Oxford, said: "I went online to see what I could find, and the website was offering tickets for £62 each, compared with the face value of £42. There was a booking fee on top of £57.45 to cover the postage. I hadn't imagined that the tickets might not turn up."
The plan was for Deborah and her husband and their two best friends to have a weekend away in London, with the extra treat of a night in a London hotel. But the day before the gig the tickets had not arrived.
"I phoned the number on the website but I just got an answer machine," she says. "It was so frustrating as I was not able to talk to anyone. There was no address on the website, nothing. I spent the whole day trying to get through. I had been looking forward to the concert but by the end of that day I was absolutely exhausted."
Because of the hotel booking she looked for other tickets and was able to get four more for £250. She paid for the first tickets through Visa, but hasn't made any attempt to get her money back. "You feel such a plonker. Such an idiot. I had to tell my friends there were no tickets and try to get some more."
Rebecca Smithers and Rupert Jones
Thursday 10 September 2009 00.05 BST
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Just Tick It campaign aims to highlight bogus music and sports ticket websites, says Office of Fair Trading
Music and sports stars are lending their support to a campaign to protect fans from online ticket scams, as research reveals almost one in 10 buyers has been ripped off by a bogus site.
Singer Kate Nash, Dave Rowntree from Blur, and England rugby player Steve Borthwick are among those backing the drive by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to raise awareness of the issue and encourage consumers to be more vigilant in checking website deals.
The research revealed that the main reason for using scam websites was desperation to get hold of tickets for an event. Victims lost an average of £80, but in more serious cases fans have been fleeced for hundreds of pounds.
Music fans have recently suffered from an explosion in the number of fraudulent gig ticket websites, with fraud experts estimating that 30,000 people in the UK were ripped off last year.
According to Melvin Benn, head of Festival Republic, which organises the Reading and Leeds festivals, 5,000 people were turned away from the events last year because their tickets were not valid.
Many people are buying tickets that never arrive. One firm that left music fans high and dry was SOS Master Tickets whose website was taken down after it took money for tickets for the 2008 V Festival that never arrived.
The OFT's Just Tick It campaign, being launched today, offers a checklist on the government's Consumer Direct site to help ticket buyers differentiate between bogus and legitimate websites.
Research by the OFT shows that more than four in 10 (44%) people who had fallen victim to a scam had been anxious to secure tickets. Almost a third (32%) were tricked by the legitimate and professional appearance of the websites. And after realising they had been duped, one in five were then too shy to report it.
Platinum-selling artist Kate Nash said: "I remember last year a friend of mine bought a ticket for a festival that he couldn't really afford anyway. He's a student and the tickets were around £200. He lost his money and his friends who had bought legitimate tickets went without him.
"I think it's disgusting really, scamming people who want to go to gigs and have a good time. They just get ripped off and disappointed, turning something positive into something negative."
Mike Haley of the OFT said: "We're working hard with other law enforcement agencies to crack down on these types of crimes and consumers can help themselves to avoid falling victim by knowing how to spot a scam site."
Many of the bogus sites tend to be hosted outside the UK, with Hungary a favourite safe haven. In many cases the Metropolitan Police has written to the web-hosting companies and domain registrars to ask them to pull the plug, but these requests are often refused.
And even when the authorities succeed in getting sites shut down the fraudsters behind them often move elsewhere and relaunch with slightly different names. Bogus sites often carry all the official branding, stolen from legitimate sites, and have plausible web addresses, which is often enough to fool people into thinking they are real.
Last weekend, a number of fans of rock band Muse were turned away from the group's two open-air shows in Teignmouth, Devon, after buying tickets from museboxoffice.com which either never arrived or never existed. The website is still live and offering tickets for the band's forthcoming European shows. But it gives no contact number or postal address (people can only get in touch via email) and hides behind a US company called InvisiHosting, which aims to "provide anyone with $3 and an internet connection with the ability to communicate their ideas in a 100% anonymous fashion".
Meanwhile, a number of unauthorised websites are already offering tickets to next year's Reading, Leeds, T in the Park and V festivals. Organisers of these events are urging music fans not to buy from sites such as readingfestivaltickets2010.com, vfestival2010.net and Titp2010.com. However, when the Guardian looked this week all three sites came up as "sponsored links" on Google.
In a statement a spokesman for museboxoffice.com said: "After looking into your allegations regarding the Teignmouth shows we can confirm that 98% of our customers experienced no difficulties at all with their tickets. A very small number of cases has indeed been identified where refunds may be applicable and we are currently looking into those cases as obviously if no tickets were received then a full refund will be applied of all money paid within 14 days."
Case study
Deborah Mackin lost more than £300 last year after buying four tickets for a Radiohead concert which were intended as a Christmas present for her best friends.
She bought them in December 2007 from the now defunct London Ticket Shop website – not realising it was bogus – when she was unable to find tickets elsewhere for two London concerts in June 2008.
Deborah, aged 46 from Oxford, said: "I went online to see what I could find, and the website was offering tickets for £62 each, compared with the face value of £42. There was a booking fee on top of £57.45 to cover the postage. I hadn't imagined that the tickets might not turn up."
The plan was for Deborah and her husband and their two best friends to have a weekend away in London, with the extra treat of a night in a London hotel. But the day before the gig the tickets had not arrived.
"I phoned the number on the website but I just got an answer machine," she says. "It was so frustrating as I was not able to talk to anyone. There was no address on the website, nothing. I spent the whole day trying to get through. I had been looking forward to the concert but by the end of that day I was absolutely exhausted."
Because of the hotel booking she looked for other tickets and was able to get four more for £250. She paid for the first tickets through Visa, but hasn't made any attempt to get her money back. "You feel such a plonker. Such an idiot. I had to tell my friends there were no tickets and try to get some more."
Rebecca Smithers and Rupert Jones
Thursday 10 September 2009 00.05 BST
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
