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The most nerve-wracking part of all concert I experienced scanned my ticket before accessing the event. Although I always buy my ticket during the initial sale and from reputable sellers, I always have a nagging fear of being turned away at the door. Fortunately, this has never happened to me, but it’s not impossible.
I was lucky enough to attend Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert last year and before the show I read countless horror stories about fans buying resold tickets only to be turned away at the entrance. I personally have never bought a second-hand concert or event ticket – mostly because of the risk involved in buying resale tickets.
This is not to say that buying event tickets on the secondary market is inherently unsafe. Many people often resell their tickets because they can’t attend the event and just want to recoup what they originally spent on the ticket. Scammers can take advantage of the excitement and buzz surrounding an event and scam eager fans looking for a last-minute ticket to their favorite artist’s concert or their favorite team’s game.
The House of Representatives recently passed TICKET A law that seeks to protect consumers from unfair ticketing practices. According to Variety , if enacted, the new law would “require ticket sellers to implement simple all-in pricing; ban speculative ticket sales… ban fraudulent websites and website marketing; provide full refunds for any canceled event; offering comparable replacement tickets for all postponed events with purchasers’ approval; and requiring the FTC to issue a report on the implementation of the BOTS Act”
While the act has significant bipartisan support, must still pass a Senate vote before being sent to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. While this is a significant step in federal protections around ticketing practices, these proposed changes likely won’t take effect for some time.
It’s important to be careful when buying tickets online, and these expert tips and tricks can help protect you when buying resale tickets online.
For more information, here how to keep your concert tickets safe and how to recognize SMS phishing scams.
Wait until the tour actually goes on sale before buying a second-hand ticket
This may seem like obvious advice, but don’t buy tickets from an online distributor before the actual tour tickets go on sale. This process, the so-called speculative ticket sales, is when those willing to capitalize on fan excitement can attempt to sell tickets to the event before they even have a ticket for sale. After Taylor Swift 2022 Ticket Fiascomore and more states are beginning to crack down on event ticketing practices, p Maryland becoming the first to crack down on speculative ticketing.
While you might get lucky if the seller you’re buying from gets hold of an event ticket, the risk doesn’t outweigh the reward here. You don’t want to be out a hundred or more dollars and show up the day of the event without getting in.
Be careful with your payment method
Another tip (which comes straight from Ticketmaster’s website) is to be careful with your payment method. The ticketing company recommends avoiding direct payment methods that don’t actually tell you what you’re buying or that require a direct money transfer.
Ticketmaster notes that a simple scam would require the buyer to send the seller gift cards as payment. According to the Ticketmaster blog, “Ticketmaster will never ask you to purchase a Ticketmaster gift card or any type of third-party gift card to use as a form of payment for tickets.”
The Better Business Bureau recommends protecting yourself by using your credit card if shopping through a website, as most credit card companies have robust fraud protection policies. You should never give someone your credit card information over the phone as a form of payment.
Try to buy from the same website the seller bought their ticket from
To make sure you get a genuine ticket, try to buy from the original source of the ticket. Generally, this will be Ticketmaster allowing ticket holders to resell directly on the Ticketmaster website.
Be careful, scammers can still impersonate Ticketmaster to scam you out of your money. If you see an email, text message or website that you’re not sure is legitimate, you can always contact a Ticketmaster official support page to double check.
If you buy on social media, be vigilant
If you decide to buy your ticket on social media to avoid ticket fees and dynamic pricing, know that you are taking a riskier route and be aware of who you are buying from. Check out their profile and see if they seem like a real person. You can run a reverse image search on images on their profile, and if the images don’t appear or are attached to other social media profiles of the seller, it could mean they’re a real person.
Real people commit scams all the time, so use your best judgment when looking for tickets to buy second hand. If something seems too good to be true or you have a bad feeling, stay away. No matter how badly you want to go to that concert or event, it’s not worth compromising your personal information and money.
If everything looks legit and you proceed with your ticket purchase, be sure to use a payment method that protects you. Using PayPal Goods and Services (rather than transfer between friends and family) provides some quite a lot of protection and it is recommended wide.
For more, here what you need to know about reselling concert tickets and your taxes and how to spot student loan forgiveness scams.
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