So you’re hoping to save a few bucks by buying a ticket to an event from someone selling theirs at a cheaper price? Make sure you don't end up having spent your money and being scammed, leaving you with a fake ticket.
With ticket scammers at an all time high, there’s no reason to risk losing your hard earned money just to try and shave some money off some of the ticket price. Imagine driving all the way to the venue, all dressed up, filled with excitement and expectations - just to be told when you arrive at the gate that you have bought a fraudulent ticket, and have to either buy a new ticket to get in, or simply be refused entry.
"The best way to not get scammed is to only buy a ticket from the official ticketer or a legitimate outlet."
If you can help it, never ever buy a ticket from anyone other than either the official ticketer or a legitimate outlet listed as selling tickets by the organisers of the event. This is literally the only way of knowing that your tickets are 100% legitimate and that your barcode is completely unique to your ticket. Remember that a barcode can only be scanned in once, and no one - not the ticketer, nor the Event Organiser can help you if you have bought a ticket privately and have been scammed.
If you do find yourself in a situation where this is your only choice - for example if an event is sold out and the only way to get a ticket is privately from someone you don’t know - keep reading! We have a few things we can share from industry experience which you can do to make sure you end up being able to attend the event.
To start with, always make sure that the person selling you the ticket uses the ticket transfer option to transfer it from their Quicket account into to your own Quicket account. This does not mean simply changing the name on the ticket to your name, since that wouldn’t change the barcode and will still put you at risk of buying a ticket which may have been sold to more than one person, or even cancelled on the system. If this happens, you’ll be left in a sticky situation when you arrive at the door.
"Never post a picture of your ticket on Social Media or anywhere else - people can copy your barcode and use it to get in before you or sell your ticket to someone else."
Transferring a ticket means that the seller will have to log into their Quicket account and select the option to Transfer the ticket to a new email address. This will remove the ticket from their Quicket account, make the old barcode null and void, and then issue you with your own unique barcode for entry which the person who sold you the ticket cannot see and you should not shown to anyone else. An important note here: please do not post a picture of your ticket on Social Media or anywhere else - people can copy your barcode and use it to get in before you or sell your ticket to someone else.
Don’t transfer money to someone before the ticket is transferred to you - you will have no guarantee you will ever see the ticket. Ticket scammers create fake Facebook profiles specifically for this purpose, so just because you can see a profile on Facebook doesn’t mean that they are trustworthy or are who they say they are. They could simply vanish with your money leaving you feeling broke and silly.
"If you transfer the money before the ticket is transferred to you, you have no guarantee that you'll ever see the ticket."
Either meet them in person, and do the exchange of money and transfer together, or better yet, see if the event is listed on www.ticketpony.co.za. TicketPony is a site that allows safe, secure sales between private buyers and it works extremely well since it uses your Quicket account to transfer the tickets. If the event isn’t on TicketPony, ask the Event Organiser to list it so that you can safely pay for your tickets through the site without having to go through the effort of meeting the seller in person. You can find the Event Organiser's contact details on the right side of the ticket sales page on Quicket.
However you buy your ticket, make sure it doesn’t put you at risk of being scammed. If either you or the person selling you the ticket is confused, don’t hesitate to give us or our friends over at TicketPony a call to help clear it all up for you.
Good luck, and stay safe out there!
Roxanne, part of our Organiser Success Team, started at Quicket as the first employee in 2013, and works closely with our family of Organisers to ensure that their events are successful, and that they get the very best of the Quicket platform. She is a mother of three girls (two of which are feline) and loves to spend her free time wondering around Cape Town, and developing new recipe’s in the kitchen.