ANZ Stadium warning people about scalping scams targeting Ed Sheeran’s concert
THOUSANDS of fans are being conned into buying fake or doctored concert tickets, with Sydney’s largest venue taking the unusual step of specifically warning about scalping scams targeting Ed Sheeran’s sold-out shows next week.
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THOUSANDS of fans are being conned into buying fake or doctored concert tickets, with Sydney’s largest venue taking the unusual step of specifically warning about scalping scams targeting Ed Sheeran’s sold-out shows next week.
With more than one million tickets sold for Sheeran’s tour, ANZ Stadium is warning fans of the increasing risk of fraudulent tickets which leave fans stuck at the turnstiles and out of pocket by hundreds of dollars.
The Daily Telegraph has seen secret industry briefings which suggest nearly 10 per cent of all tickets for some high-demand shows are fake, doctored to made to appear better than they are or sold multiple times.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s first tour to Australia since 1998, last August, is understood to have been hit by 2000 fake or fraudulent tickets compared to 26,000 legitimate seats that were sold in Sydney.
With Sheeran in Sydney for three sold-out shows from next Friday, an ANZ Stadium spokesman said “we do not want anyone disappointed on the night when their tickets do not scan at the turnstiles”.
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“With record numbers of fans attending the upcoming Ed Sheeran concerts, it is important people are aware of the risks of purchasing tickets via unauthorised resellers on the internet,” he told the Telegraph.
Sheeran, brought to Australia by Frontier Touring, is expected to break the record set by Dire Straits in 1986 for the most tickets sold in one tour of Australia and New Zealand.
The extent of the scamming for the Sheeran concerts became apparent to industry insiders when tickets started to appear on Viagogo before they even went on sale.
A number of Perth fans have already been left shattered when tickets purchased from dodgy online outfits failed to scan and were found to be fakes. At least 194 tickets were fraudulent over two shows, 173 of them sold through Viagogo, data obtained by this newspaper shows. But Frontier is concerned the figure could be much higher.
An estimated 5000 tickets for Bruno Mars’ tour this month are expected to be resold at hyper-inflated prices by outfits such as Viagogo.