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STUB OUT THE TOUTS Multi-million pound ticket scam uncovered as shady seller lists thousands of briefs from all over world using modest Dundee home of unsuspecting retired couple
TOUT site Viagogo is facing fresh calls for a criminal investigation after the Daily Record discovered it is listing millions of pounds worth of illegal “spec” tickets.
Our latest probe into the site has found that a handful of mysterious traders on the rip-off secondary sales site are behind up to 80 per cent of all the tickets listed for many big shows.
And we can reveal that the tickets are being listed speculatively by unknown, untraceable sellers who have not bought them from a primary seller.
Spec selling is fraud and can bring a jail sentence. Fraudulent listings account for between £2million to £4million on any given day.
Our investigation took us to the doorstep of a retired couple’s bungalow in Dundee, the supposed nerve centre of one massive tout seller on Viagogo, HE Events.
The shady seller has listed hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of tickets in the UK, US, Asia and Australia.
But the homeowner at quiet Balgray Street confirmed no tickets were being sold from that address – and the unsuspecting pensioner had no idea his home address was being used to sell non-existent tickets.
He said: “I’ve never heard of Viagogo and I’ve never heard of HE Events. And I’ve never had any letters through relating to them.
“I’m angry that our address has been used in this way and I intend to contact the police.”
After the allegations were put to Viagogo, masses of tickets listed by HE Events were mysteriously transferred to another brand new seller entity on the platform, SFAD Events.
But the address for the new seller was a PO Box on Lever Street, Manchester, which we have discovered to be another fake address – meaning more fraudulent listings.
Campaigner Adam Webb, of the FanFair Alliance pressure group, has held many meetings with industry watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority to demand action on the fake ticket scandal.
Until today the CMA has said or done nothing about spec selling, which can drive up prices across the secondary market.
Webb said: “We have believed for some time that a substantial number of Viagogo’s listings are fraudulent. Either the tickets being advertised haven’t been purchased or the sellers are masking their true identities with bogus names and addresses.
“The Daily Record has now shed further light on the sheer scale of these suspected practices.
“It feels fairly unlikely that the occupants of this modest house in Dundee are the beating heart of a multi-million pound international ticket resale business, stretching from the UK to New Zealand. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“We can document HE Events sitting on overpriced tickets right up to the point of gigs taking place, which would incur a massive loss if they had been bought.”
After Webb witnessed the transfer of HE Events tickets to a new trader identity on
Viagogo, he added: “Viagogo’s response to the allegations have been laughable. They’ve simply allowed these phantom suppliers to change their identities, and start using other fictitious addresses.
“It’s absolutely brazen. No ticket listings have been removed, and no sanctions have been taken.
“A full and thorough criminal investigation relating to activity on this site is now long overdue.”
The UK’s top ticketing investigator, Reg Walker, of the Iridium Consultancy, also called for a criminal probe.
He said: “What we have here is spec selling on an industrial level. Tickets are designed to sit on the site and not sell.
“If we examine the tickets listed by HE
Events and others closely we can see that events come and go without any of the tickets selling, which would incur massive losses for any seller if they did, in fact, hold the tickets.
“I have done test purchases that prove the tickets were never bought in the first place and I have information from several primary sellers that categorically proves that the tickets were never bought from these very suspect traders.”
Walker said the CMA must make immediate moves to discover who is behind identities like HE Events, Sofia Wagner and another big seller, Ticketing Expert Ltd.
He said: “It speaks volumes that the people in Dundee had nothing to do with HE Events or Viagogo.
“Viagogo must know exactly who is listing these tickets. They have systems in place to optimise sales.
“Yet they allow thousands of tickets to remain on their site despite being listed illegally, speculatively, and priced in a way they cannot ever be expected to sell.”
Walker added: “In order to supposedly stop spec selling, Viagogo asks sellers to tick a box to say they are in possession of tickets. What criminal is not going to tick that box? The sad thing for consumers is that the high prices of HE Events and Sofia Wagner make customers think the cheaper tickets are a big deal, when in reality they’re a rip-off, so it distorts and inflates the market.”
Viagogo said it “strictly adheres” to CMA guidelines and undergoes an annual external audit of its business.
Its spokesman said an investigation took place after the Record’s claims were put to them. He added: “We subsequently have blocked the sellers in question until they provide proof of address, at which point they will be unblocked providing all information is compliant.”
The spokesman said no Viagogo employees are involved in trading activity on the site.
Peter Hunter and David Smith were jailed in 2020 after being found guilty of four counts of fraud, including one related to speculative selling.