From time to time, you may discover a fraudulent third-party website attempting to sell tickets to an upcoming event. This can be an issue for successful ticket sellers that have highly sought-after tickets, specifically when tickets for the event are not yet on sale or haven't had a sale date announced yet. This absence of ticketing sales information is an opportunity for fraudsters to capture excited consumers.
The solution: Promoting your site!
We cannot stop fraudulent sites from existing, and chasing them down individually is not a scalable use of anyone's time. The good news is that the real fix is straightforward: promote the official ticketing partner publicly as early as possible, and do it in all the places where customers may find it when searching.
When a customer searches for the event and immediately finds clear, official information about where tickets will be sold, they have what they need to recognize a scam site. That's it!
The solution is to make sure this useful piece of information is out there before fraudulent sites have a chance to fill the silence.
Test it yourself: open an incognito window and search for the event the way a customer would. Whatever comes up — the event host's official website, social media pages, news coverage — those are the surfaces where the official ticketing partner should be named.
Recommendations for event hosts and site partners
Event hosts often wait to publish ticketing information until they have the exact on-sale date, the exact link, or all the marketing assets finalized. For large or high-demand events, that delay is what leaves room for confusion. We recommend the following:
- Announce the ticketing partnership early, even before tickets are live. A few simple words like "Tickets will be available exclusively at [site partner], check back here for official links" is enough.
- Display the ticketing brand logo and name on the official event page and on the site partner's primary websites.
- Position the site as the event's "local and exclusive ticketing partner" in promotional content. This is worth making a standard part of the ticket launch process for any large event or venue.
These solutions are just more great reasons to promote your ticketing brand in your community as the reliable source for local event tickets!
What about reporting the scam site?
Event hosts are welcome to contact the fraudulent site's host or registrar to flag concerns, and doing so creates a useful paper trail. However, this is outside our purview and is an action the event host or site partner can take if desired.