Don't Be Caught Out By These Tricky Festival Scams

Festival season is in full swing and if you're trying to secure last-minute tickets, here's what you need to know.

There's nothing more stressful or nerve-wracking than trying to buy tickets to your favourite artist or to a popular festival. From websites crashing to trying to coordinate the ticket buying with your friends to make sure everyone gets a ticket, it's definitely not the most fun part of festival season.

Unfortunately, ticket-buying scams are very real and an easy way for scammers to make some quick cash at the expense of keen festival goers. While you can definitely buy tickets from people who no longer wish to go to a festival, scams are all too common, so if you are thinking about buying tickets last minute or away from the official festival websites, here's what you need to look out for.

How to avoid festival scams

VegasSlotsOnline conducted wider research into UK festivals and these are the tips that experts warn you to follow when buying festival tickets.

1. Buy directly from official sources

Although there are probably plenty of people who bought their tickets straight from the festival website who do genuinely want to resell them, it's a big risk to buy from people on Twitter or Instagram.

Instead, if you can't buy directly from the festival website, check the box office or recognised ticket selling or reselling platforms to make sure the exchange is legit and not a scam. Ticketmaster and AXS are well-known ticket-selling platforms that allow reselling easily from their website. Always be cautious of individuals or third-party sellers selling tickets online, even if they do exchange a ticket for money there's a big chance that when you get to the festival your ticket could be fake.

2. Check website security

Make sure that when you're buying tickets, the website has a secure connection and has "https" at the beginning of the URL. Although this might not seem important, this is key for making sure your personal and financial information is encrypted and secure.

3. Beware of "Too Good to be True" deals

Have you ever seen something on sale that is suspiciously cheap for what the item is? Well, this is the case with festivals too. If you see someone selling a ticket for an incredibly low price which seems too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers rely on people being desperate for tickets and entice them with low prices in order to get them to hand over money, so if someone is insisting that they're selling the ticket for cheap because they're desperate to get rid of it, it could be a scam.

4. Understand the refund policy

Unfortunately, festivals don't always go to plan thanks to the chaotic British weather or if headline acts pull out last minute. If you've bought your ticket from a legit seller the refund policy will clearly state that if the event is cancelled or postponed you'll get a full refund or that your ticket will be valid for the rescheduled date.

While we don't tend to think of the festival being potentially cancelled when we book, it's always good to double-check, as life can be unpredictable and you don't want to be out of pocket if the festival can't go ahead.

5. Use a secure payment method

The best way to pay for tickets online is with a credit card if you have one, or if you can borrow a family members and give them the money from your bank account in return.

This is because credit cards offer better protection against fraud, meaning it's easy for you to ring up your credit card provider and get suspicious transactions cancelled. It can be much harder to prove fraudulent transactions from your debit card and if you do hand over the cash to a scammer, you'll have a hard time getting your bank to reinstate the money to your account.

You'll also want to avoid paying for anything in cash so there's at least a digital trail and proof of you purchasing your ticket. Scammers will rely on people wanting to pay with cash as an easy way to pull off the scam, so if you're buying a resell ticket and they want you to pay in cash or via a bank transfer this is normally a tell-tale sign that something could be wrong.

Remember that scammers are smart and even the smartest of people fall victim. When buying tickets, it's best to follow these tips and use common sense—if something doesn't feel right it probably isn't. You can read the full research on festivals from VegasSlotsOnline here.

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