SCAMMERS will target music and sports fans if tough anti-fraud measures aren’t introduced alongside new ticket price caps, Ministers are warned.
Consumers are at risk of moving to unregulated online sites which campaigners say is a “breeding ground” for ticket fraud in a letter to Home Office Minister Lord Hanson.
GettyMinisters urged to bring in anti-fraud measures in re-sale of tickets[/caption]
It comes as the government announced earlier this year that it plans to limit the price of resold tickets to crack down on ticket touts.
Areas covered by the cap would include sports matches, music concerts and theatre.
A consultation from earlier this year revealed a price uplift of between zero and thirty per cent.
But industry experts have said extra regulation could lead to unintended consequences with tickets swapping hands informally without any added protections.
But the reported average fraud losses amounted to £800 in Australia during Taylor Swift’s tour with teenagers falling victim to the scams.
Under the current rules, banks and financial institutions will be liable to refund the victims in the UK subjected to Authorised Push Payment fraud.
This takes place when people are tricked into sending money to someone acting as a fraudster but posing a genuine payee.
Home Office Minister Lord Hanson has been told in the letter that scams have increased by 13.6 per cent in Ireland where a cap has been brought in.
Experts from leading banks such as Natwest and Monzo have joined forces warning of big liabilities as costs are recouped for consumers.
Signatories to the letter also include Tony Neate, the boss of Get Safe Online, and law and policing Professor Sarah Kingston, from the University of Lancashire.
In the stern message to the Home Office, they say: “We are strongly urging that any new policy of this nature be evaluated for its fraud risk impact.”
The typical mark-up on tickets is more than half. The total mark-ups on secondary ticketing sites costing music fans alone £145 million.
One system the industry have suggested is “open-ticketing” which is used by airlines and the banking system.
This allows the technology to effectively talk to each other to enable tickets to be verified and essentially checked against the original source.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to clamping down on touts, and through our Plan for Change, we will put fans back at the heart of live events.
“We are considering the evidence provided in response to our consultation and will set out our plans soon.”
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