Ticketmaster is one of the largest ticket sales and distribution companies in the world. They sell tickets for concerts, sporting events, theater shows, and more. With millions of tickets sold through their platform every year, fraud is an ongoing issue that Ticketmaster takes seriously.
What types of ticket fraud does Ticketmaster deal with?
There are several common types of ticket fraud that happen on Ticketmaster and other ticket marketplace platforms:
- Fake tickets – Scammers will often sell tickets they don’t actually have in hand. After the purchase, the buyer never receives a valid ticket.
- Stolen tickets – Fraudsters will get access to legitimate tickets that don’t belong to them and resell them illegally.
- Ticket duplication – Some scammers try to duplicate valid ticket barcodes and QR codes to create multiple copies of the same ticket. This allows them to sell the duplicates even if the original ticket has already been scanned and used at the event.
- Speculative tickets – For highly anticipated events that are expected to sell out quickly, scammers will sell tickets that they don’t yet have but expect to secure once they go on sale. The tickets often don’t materialize.
- Price gouging – While not outright fraud, resellers will often inflate ticket prices far above face value to take advantage of high demand.
Ticketmaster has several practices in place to try to limit these types of fraud on their platform.
How does Ticketmaster verify tickets are valid?
Ticketmaster uses a few methods to verify that tickets being sold and bought on their platform are legitimate:
- Barcodes and QR codes – Each Ticketmaster ticket, whether original or resale, contains a unique barcode or QR code that is tied to that specific ticket. Scanned codes can’t be reused or duplicated to prevent fraud.
- Buyer Guarantees – For resale tickets, Ticketmaster offers buyer guarantees that allow refunds if tickets end up being fraudulent or otherwise unusable. This provides buyers with assurance when purchasing from resellers.
- Seller verification – Ticket resellers on Ticketmaster must provide business registration, a valid credit card, and other identity verification to list tickets for sale. This helps prevent anonymous fraud.
- Direct integrations – As the primary ticket provider for many venues and events, Ticketmaster has direct partnerships that enable them to verify ticket allocations and distributions directly with the source.
Despite these measures, some fake or speculative tickets still get through due to the high volume of transactions and sophisticated fraud tactics. But Ticketmaster’s verification methods do make fraud more difficult to perpetrate successfully.
What policies does Ticketmaster have for dealing with fraudulent tickets?
Ticketmaster has established several policies around fraudulent ticket sales on their platform:
- They guarantee refunds for any tickets that end up being invalid or fake when presented for entry at the event.
- They will ban sellers caught listing speculative or fraudulent tickets from future use of the Ticketmaster resale platform.
- They use data analysis and monitoring to try to identify high-risk sellers that may be more likely to engage in fraud.
- They cooperate with law enforcement to support investigations and prosecution of large-scale ticket fraud operations.
- They have limits on how much resellers can inflate ticket prices to discourage massive price gouging.
Despite these policies, there are still instances where buyers end up losing money through Ticketmaster fraud and find it difficult to get refunds. But in general, Ticketmaster’s policies around fraud are more robust than many other ticket resellers online.
Does Ticketmaster vet high volume resellers?
Yes, Ticketmaster does have additional vetting and monitoring practices for high volume ticket resellers on their platform. These sellers have a higher risk profile when it comes to potential fraud, so Ticketmaster tries to be more cautious with them.
Some of the things Ticketmaster does to vet these sellers include:
- Reviewing their sales history and checking for anomalies like complaints or cancelations.
- Requiring more extensive identity verification including business registration documents.
- Looking for unusual selling patterns that could indicate speculative selling or fraud.
- Limiting the number of high-demand tickets a single seller can list at once.
- More frequently checking that their inventory is valid before listing.
Despite this additional scrutiny, high volume resellers do account for a large portion of the fraud that still occurs on Ticketmaster. Their extensive activity provides more opportunities to scam unsuspecting buyers. Ticketmaster is constantly updating their fraud prevention practices to try to catch more instances of reseller fraud.
What protections does Ticketmaster offer if you are sold fake tickets?
If you purchase tickets through Ticketmaster and end up receiving fake, duplicate, or otherwise invalid tickets, there are some protections they offer:
- Refunds – You can request a refund through Ticketmaster if your tickets end up being unusable for the event. They will conduct an investigation and if the tickets are found fraudulent, a refund is usually provided.
- Replacement tickets – In some cases, Ticketmaster can replace the invalid tickets with valid ones so you can still attend the event. This is based on ticket availability.
- Buyer Guarantee – For resale tickets, Ticketmaster’s Buyer Guarantee provides a refund of the full purchase amount plus an additional 200% of that amount. This encourages buyers to purchase resale with confidence.
- Banning sellers – If a seller is found to have sold you fake tickets, they will be banned from future Ticketmaster sales to prevent repeat offenses.
Ticketmaster also recommends taking precautions like only buying from authorized sellers, avoiding social media ticket sales, and being wary of deals that seem too good to be true. If you do receive fake tickets, be sure to report it promptly to Ticketmaster.
How can you identify if a Ticketmaster ticket is fake?
Here are some ways to try and identify if Ticketmaster tickets you’ve purchased might be fake or fraudulent:
- Inspect the ticket barcodes/QR codes – Fraudulent codes will often have anomalies or inconsistencies compared to legitimate codes.
- Check for accurate event details – Fake tickets will sometimes list incorrect info for the event date, time, location etc.
- Verify the purchase on Ticketmaster – Check your Ticketmaster account to make sure the tickets are listed there and match what you received.
- Compare to prior tickets – If you’ve bought tickets from Ticketmaster before, compare the new ones to see if the format, fonts, logos etc. look different.
- Contact Ticketmaster – If you suspect your tickets are fake, contact Ticketmaster support right away to investigate.
- Try to scan them – Fake tickets will fail to properly scan and allow entry at the event when their barcodes/QR codes are invalid.
If your tickets have any signs they might be fraudulent based on the above, reach out to Ticketmaster support as soon as possible. They can confirm if the tickets are fake and process any needed refunds or replacements per their policies.
Is Ticketmaster effective at preventing ticket fraud?
Ticketmaster does have extensive measures in place to try to limit ticket fraud on their platform. However, some key factors make eliminating fraud difficult:
- The sheer volume of ticket sales makes catching every instance of fraud challenging.
- Sophisticated scammers are constantly evolving their tactics to try to bypass fraud prevention systems.
- Some fraud begins off of Ticketmaster’s platform then tries to utilize it for sales.
- There are always tradeoffs between fraud prevention and customer convenience.
So while Ticketmaster has broad anti-fraud policies and practices, buyers do still get victimized in some cases. Common complaints include slow refund responses and inconsistent policy enforcement. There are also calls for Ticketmaster to be more transparent about exact fraud rates and trends over time.
Overall, Ticketmaster likely prevents a significant amount of ticket fraud compared to a platform with no protections. But there is still room for improvement as scammers find new ways to exploit the high demand for tickets.
Conclusion
Ticket fraud is a persistent challenge for Ticketmaster and other ticket marketplaces. While Ticketmaster does utilize policies, verification checks, and fraud monitoring to try to protect buyers and prevent illicit ticket sales, their systems are not foolproof. Fraud still occurs and buyers end up with invalid or unusable tickets in some instances.
The most effective way for ticket buyers to protect themselves is being cautious when purchasing, only buying from authorized sellers, acting quickly if tickets appear fraudulent, and leveraging Ticketmaster’s refund policies and guarantees if issues emerge. As fraud tactics evolve, Ticketmaster will need to continue improving its safeguards as well. But a certain amount of risk will always exist when purchasing tickets online.