Fury over Enchanted Forest tickets scam
Customers duped by online fraudster
Families desperate to attend the Enchanted Forest were left furious after being swindled by a fraudulent social media account.
A profile page has drawn the ire of a number of locals who hoped to capture the bright lights of the popular tourist attraction.
The luminescent spectacle was on display every night at Faskally Woods from October 3 to November 4, drawing in more than 80,000 visitors from Perthshire and beyond.
However, a few unassuming customers striving to make the last nights of the annual event were duped by an account which would contact those posting on the ‘Pitlochry Now’ community Facebook page looking for tickets.
The profile would then request a PayPal or direct debit transaction in exchange for tickets, which can reach up to £58 for a family, £21 per adult, £11 for children between three and 15 years old, with under threes attending for free.
A number of locals took to the Pitlochry Now page to alert other ticket-seekers to the “shocking” scam.
Ang Taylor posted: “Thank God I didn’t buy them. She pm’d [personal messaged] me with the times but I decided against them thankfully.
“She needs reported.”
Clayre Brain posted: “Shocking. But this serves as a warning to make sure you have the tickets before you pay.
“Meet in person in a public place to exchange.”
Kathryn Howell posted: “It happened to me too. I paid through PayPal as well so will hopefully manage to get my money back - she scammed me [out of ] £50.”
Alannah-Jayne Simpson posted: “Enchanted Forest people have already warned people to only buy from their certified websites and not from anyone over Facebook. We got scammed too and luckily paid through goods and services.”
The profile page has since been deactivated.
Tickets for the 2020 event went on sale on Monday, and the organisers themselves have also sent a warning to punters to avoid being stung by fraudsters.
A statement from The Enchanted Forest organisers said: “We noticed there were quite a few posts about Enchanted Forest tickets on this group.
“While this year’s show has now finished, tickets go on sale for 2020 today and we really cannot stress strongly enough that people should use the official channels for selling or buying any unwanted tickets.
“With every sell-out show there is a chance that scammers will target it and try to make money out of those who are not using the official channels.
“We can only get the message out so far but we do rely on our audience to also play their part and help people avoid falling victim to unscrupulous fraudsters who are deliberately targeting them.
“SEE Tickets has a fan-to-fan resale page for the sole purpose of enabling sales between individuals and the event clearly signposts it on our website once tickets for the event have sold out.”
With every sell-out show there is a chance that scammers will target it