Most event booking agencies strongly advise against buying tickets from secondary ticket resellers. However, if an event is fully booked out and you are still inclined to engage in a deal, go through the items in this checklist in chronological order to make sure that you will not be scammed.
- If the buyer has obtained the tickets in physical form, offer to chat with them over a video call to see the tickets, i.e. proceed as if you were inspecting them in person to clarify the rest of the items below.
- The tickets are transferrable from seller to buyer (you). The buyer is able to change the name on the tickets to transfer ownership to you.
- The seller will only sell the tickets once - to you only - so that they can not scam you by selling it to another person (buyer 2) to make more profit. If this happens, you could be rejected at the entrance of the venue if buyer 2 enters before you - goodbye money, goodbye time 👋
- The seller can prove that they actually purchased the tickets, e.g. via a screenshot of the official order confirmation / summary together with their (valid) ID. Ask them to blur out any personal detail to make sure they're also comfortable to share this with you.
- The information you have received from the seller so far matches the one you can obtain from the official ticketing partner of the booking agency or the event venue. Any contact details of these can be looked up and should be available online. Double checking this should be the final step before you engage in a transaction if you have lingering doubts about the credibility of the seller.
Final remark: Scammer-repellency rate is yet to be empirically determined. This list happened when I was trying to find tickets to the sold-out concert of Rina Sawayama in Lido (Berlin) on Mar 23rd 2022. Do message me if you know of anybody who's not able to attend the concert TYVM 🙏.
