Five tips to avoid tickets scams and dud deals

From the Oasis reunion shows to the Wimbledon Championships – and all the festivals and sporting fixtures in between – we'll see lots of exciting events take place across the UK this summer.

If you want to secure last-minute tickets for an in-demand event, it's important to stay vigilant to ticket scams and dud deals.

Here, we share our five top tips for buying tickets safely and avoid being swindled by a scammer.

1. Always stick to official ticket sites

The best way to avoid being scammed is to buy directly from the event's official ticket partner.

If the event is sold out, make sure you only look for resale tickets on the event's official resale site (which is often Ticketmaster's fan-to-fan service or Twickets).

Official resale partners only allow tickets to be resold at face value or below, meaning you won't pay over the odds and will be guaranteed a legitimate ticket.

Be wary of unofficial resale sites such as StubHub and Viagogo. These sites allow resellers to charge whatever they want, and most events' T&Cs state that tickets sold through these platforms are invalid.

Concerningly, it's all too easy to buy from one of these unofficial sites, as they often appear at the top of search engine results when you type in the name of a gig, festival or sports event.

Always make sure you double-check who you're buying from before going through with your payment.

• Read more: tickets for popular music and sports events listed for inflated prices on StubHub and Viagogo

2. Be alert to scammers on social media

Buying tickets on social media can leave you open to being scammed, so it's best to avoid buying tickets this way.

Watch out for newly set up profiles that follow no one or have no followers. These accounts may have been opened specifically to scam people looking to buy tickets.

If you're unsure whether the account is legitimate, you can also use reverse image search to check where profile images originate from.

You should also be cautious of posts from family and friends, too, as hacked accounts are often used by scammers to spin sob stories to con friends and other connections. 

If someone you know has posted about a spare ticket, always contact that friend in a different way or on a different platform (for example, via a phone call or WhatsApp) to check it's legitimate and that they haven't been hacked.

• Read more: how to spot a social media scam

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3. Only enter official competitions

Fake competitions offering tickets to sold-out events are rife on social media.

They often ask you to hand over personal or financial details in order to enter the competition. This information can then be used to scam you at a later date.

Only enter ticket competitions if legitimate brands advertise them on their official channels and websites.

If you see the competition on a brand's social media channel, check that it isn't a fake account before entering.

Or if the competition is on a website, you can inspect the website's registration details on who.is to see when the site was created. A newly created website can be a red flag.

• Find out more: the latest scam alerts from Which?

4. Don’t pay by bank transfer

Fraudsters will often try to get you to pay via bank transfer or sometimes using cryptocurrency.

If you're asked to pay using one of these methods, it's best not to go ahead with the purchase.

Instead, if you do choose to buy tickets from an individual seller, try using a credit card so you can benefit from Section 75 protections if something goes wrong. 

Or if you pay by debit card, you can try to make a chargeback claim if you run into issues with your ticket.

You could also pay using PayPal to benefit from its Buyer Protection programme, but avoid paying under the 'friends and family' option as PayPal's promise doesn't cover these transactions.

• Read more: make a Section 75 or chargeback claim

5. Check the finer details before you buy

As a general rule of thumb, if a price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Double-check the face value price of a ticket before buying from resale sites. A Which? investigation recently found that tickets were listed on unofficial resale sites for hugely inflated prices, even when tickets were still available at face value prices with the primary ticket seller.

Always be aware of a ticket's face value price to ensure that you're not ripped off.

You should also confirm how you will receive the ticket. When you buy a resold ticket, there's a chance that you may be refused entry unless you have bought the ticket through an official resale platform. If the ticket is being offered as a PDF, there's a high risk that it could be fake or sold elsewhere.