Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NI revellers are swindled out of £300k
THE PSNI has issued a warning as almost £300,000 was lost to ticket fraud in Northern Ireland last year.
Police are urging people to be wary of scammers when booking tickets for concerts and other events.
Data from Action Fraud shows nationally £6.7million was lost to this type of crime. In Northern Ireland, the total reported losses came in at £291,344.36 with 299 reports.
Chair of Scamwiseni Partnership, Chief Supt Gerard Pollock, says not only does this fraud leave people out of pocket financially, but will also leave them left outside at the doors of concert venues.
He added: “We’ve had reports of people buying tickets through social media platforms, thinking they’re getting the real deal only to find out the money they’ve shelled out is to someone who isn’t genuine, and the tickets they’ve paid hundreds of pounds for never existed in the first place.
DEMAND
“With some big names on tour this summer, demand is always high for those concerts which have, in reality, been sold out months in advance. Avid fans are being exploited, often by organised criminals, in the hope of seeing their heroes live.”
A recent example includes a report of a person who thought they’d bought Taylor Swift tickets for £400 via an online ‘Buy and Sell’ page, police say.
The person was then asked to pay a further sum of money for a change of name, which they did. Once all the money was transferred, the buyer was blocked by the seller.
The tickets never arrived and the person was swindled out of their money. The exact same happened to another person last month who paid over £600 for what they thought were Taylor Swift tickets, the PSNI added.