How to make sure concert tickets are real before you buy them online

In late 2022, Taylor Swift caused an internet stir when she announced the Eras Tour, a nationwide journey celebrating her nine-album career. “Swifties,” as Swift’s fans call themselves, loved it – until Ticketmaster, the only platform selling tickets for the tour, couldn’t keep up massive demand and crashed, leading to a federal investigation, a lawsuit backed by the Swifties, and a massive scramble among fans for any form of tickets.

Unable to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster, thousands of Swifties began turning to third-party vendors and ticket sellers on social media for a spot in the resale market.

A similar thing then happened with Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, which saw “utter chaos” unfold on Ticketmaster and fans scoured the internet for resale tickets.

The main issue? Buying concert tickets from people on Twitter and Instagram is incredibly risky. These platforms don’t have the same built-in safeguards as ticket-specific marketplaces like Stubhub and SeatGeek to ensure tickets are legitimate and protect fans from fraud.

Twitter in particular is developing into a hotspot for reselling tickets and scams, Swifties have broken the news on how to buy legitimate tickets online on non-ticketing platforms. (Twitter does forbid promoting unauthorized tickets, although this does not appear to result in any consequences or provide a way for cheated buyers to be compensated.)

While buying resale tickets through social media is a gamble, it can be cheaper than buying from secondary ticketing sites that charge fees. Several Twitter accounts have sprung up with the aim of helping people find legitimate tickets. She and others have shared tips on social media on how to make sure you’re buying real tickets.

IIf you find someone on social media who appears to be selling legitimate tickets, you should only send them money through PayPal’s goods and services feature. This ensures you are covered by PayPal Purchase Protection.

This payment method also protects your financial information, monitors the transaction, and offers dispute resolution and fraud prevention. You are entitled to a full refund if you do not receive the tickets or if they are illegitimate.

A popular Swifties-run Twitter account, @erastourresell, connects people who are selling Eras tour tickets with fans who want to buy them. The three Swift fans behind the account also offer helpful advice on how to make sure the purchase is legit.

“Once a scammer sees the words ‘Paypal goods and services’ they will be executed,” they tweeted.

If your interlocutor actually bought a real ticket from Ticketmaster, they received a confirmation email. This email does not contain the actual tickets, but does contain the initial order information. Accordingly ticketmaster, This confirmation email “will be sent to the email address you provided when you made your booking, up to 72 hours after purchasing your tickets.”

A confirmation email from Ticketmaster looks like this:

Someone who legitimately purchased tickets from Ticketmaster or a valid third-party website such as SeatGeek or Stubhub could forward this email to you.

However, it is also important to note that images can be easily manipulated. Therefore, make sure that the confirmation message is sent via email. The original sender of the confirmation email should also be a real email address, e.g customer_support@email.ticketmaster.com or transactions@seatgeek.com. If the email address looks weird, you can google it to see if it has anything to do with the real website. Otherwise it may be a fake.

If you end up chatting with someone selling a ticket on Twitter, you should check out their account. A true Swiftie will likely have tweeted about the Eras Tour or Swift herself, for example. If they’ve only recently started posting things about the artist you want to see, it may be a scamsaid an apparent veteran of the Twitter ticket wars.

In addition, some accounts have been accused Using profile photos, which are pictures of random fans of Swift, suggesting they may be scammers posing as real fans who need to sell their tickets. A Google search with reversed image You can help verify that the person in the photo is the account owner. Alternatively, you can review other media posted by the person to confirm.

It is also important to ensure that the username has not recently been changed. Some accounts get caught trying to sell fake tickets and then change their user ID so you can’t search them to see what other people are saying about their activities.

Other things to look out for are significant grammatical or spelling mistakes, discrepancies in the tour dates or cities they offer, or pushy conversations. If they really want to sell tickets to another fan, they’ll probably be happy to provide any evidence you’re asked for so you can feel comfortable.

Not only can you browse her social media history, but you can also search her account name on Twitter to see if anyone is talking about her or complaining about her. You can use the Twitter search function and search for “@username + DM” or “@username + tickets”. Other people may have posted screenshots of scam direct messages or other fans are warning others not to buy from them.

As mentioned, it’s possible for someone to change their username after being caught or accused of selling fake tickets. So be careful. Just because you can’t find any complaints doesn’t mean they are valid.

If it seems too good to be true, it most likely is. That means if someone happens to message you and ask you if you want to buy tickets, it’s probably a scam.

A person selling legitimate tickets may post a tweet listing the date and venue of the concert. More likely, though, they’re going to a larger resale hub site like this one btsor this for Harry Styles, or @ErasTourResell for Swift. These accounts are run almost entirely by fans and have information about buying and selling through their hubs and their listing processes.

For example this one Twitter account for Styles’ Love on Tour requires sellers to provide a screenshot of their ticket watermarked with their username, proof of payment, a screen capture from Ticketmaster, and a message that they will be using PayPal Goods & Services. While this doesn’t guarantee 100% that the tickets are legitimate, it’s helpful to check all of these factors.

Requiring a screen capture of the seller’s Ticketmaster app is a good step to ensure tickets are genuine. Once someone buys a ticket through Ticketmaster, they can access the record of that sale at any time within the app. The account has unique details that are exclusive to the buyer and that they can share with you as part of the verification process.

Screen captures are also easy to manipulate, and @ErasTourResell pointed out that it helps to be aware of what a screen capture of the Ticketmaster app would look like and that the footage of the signs is fake. If the person sends you a video of their Ticketmaster app, make sure it doesn’t contain any errors. All information should be correct (such as concert date, seats, row, time and venue) and the video should be completely fluid and clear from the buyer’s home screen to the ticket.

It can be tempting to jump at the opportunity to buy tickets from someone you think is reputable, but don’t be rushed into making the payment. You should make sure the seller is 100% genuine before sending anything, even if they ask for a deposit (a seller asking for a deposit is usually a sign of a scam anyway).

Many fans who sell real concert tickets online want them passed on to another fan who is just as excited about the show. She Pretty sure won’t ask you to send them half the money for Venmo first, and they won’t complain if you ask for different ways to prove the tickets are authentic. Go with your gut, play it safe, and don’t send too much money before you’ve verified as much as possible.

Third-party ticket providers like SeatGeek and StubHub are generally safer options. For example, StubHub says that buyers and sellers can use the site with 100% confidence FanProtect Guaranteethat promises valid tickets or your money back.

SeatGeek offers a similar promise. The service, which bills itself as a “trusted consumer marketplace,” claims all buyers will receive valid tickets in time for the concert date. If for some reason this is not the case, SeatGeek offers one Buyer Guarantee This is on a case by case basis and offers comparable or better tickets, a full refund or credit.