One Direction, Westlife, and Many More Affected By Touts Using Sophisticated Botnet systems
Friday, 14 December 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Touts are now reportedly using sophisticated computer bots to help them swindle fans out of hundreds of pounds - because they automatically snap up the best tickets almost instantly, giving them up to thousands of the best tour tickets just minutes after they go on sale.
The computer programs - known as botnets - have forced fans of Westlife, Justin Bieber, JLS, and in particular One Direction paying much more than face value for tickets because they simply cannot compete with the technology that scammers are using today.
One Direction lovers have apparently been paying up to £1000 for tickets that should cost just £25, while £67 Justin Bieber tickets have been going for around £120. This can lead to touts raking in huge amounts of cash, with The Mirror claiming to have worked out that one Milton Keynes based tout sells over £3million worth fo tickets every year via eBay.
The man in question - known as Chris Stewart (or Ticket_Hut on eBay) - allegedly bought 150 Westlife tickets in just seconds using different credit cards (avoiding the limit which stops one person buying more than 4-5) - something genuine buyers unable to compete.
Reg Walker - who works for the Iridium Consultancy which works with promoters and venues - explains: “The odds of obtaining sequential account numbers, if manually typing in details to purchase tickets, is virtually impossible. There appeared to be reason to suspect a bot program rather than a human manually typing in and purchasing tickets.”
He continued: “Bots are fast becoming a huge problem here and are one of the main reasons fans find it so hard to buy tickets. We believe there are between 20 and 30 botnets targeting UK shows and making tens of millions of pounds. Police need to investigate ticket bots in the UK before it becomes impossible for fans to buy tickets at face value.”
Ticket touting and scamming has been around for years and probably won’t be going away anytime soon. To avoid it, all you can do is purchase your tickets from trusted sellers - such as Stereoboard.
Stereoboard.com works only with authorised ticket sellers, and safe fan-to-fan ticket exchanges, to compare event and concert ticket prices. Please do not buy from any unofficial ticket sites not listed here as you take the risk of being scammed and your ticket order not being honoured by the event's organisers.
If you want some genuine One Direction tickets for the cheapest possible price, check the dates and links below!
Fri February 22nd 2013 - O2 Arena, London
Sat February 23rd 2013 - O2 Arena, London
Sun February 24th 2013 - The O2 Arena, London
Tue February 26th 2013 - SECC, Glasgow
Wed February 27th 2013 - SECC, Glasgow
Fri March 1st 2013 - Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Sat March 2nd 2013 - Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Sun March 3rd 2013 - Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Tue March 5th 2013 - The O2 - Dublin, Dublin
Wed March 6th 2013 - The O2 - Dublin, Dublin
Thu March 7th 2013 - Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Fri March 8th 2013 - Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Sun March 10th 2013 - Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Mon March 11th 2013 - Odyssey Arena, Belfast
Tue March 12th 2013 - The O2 - Dublin, Dublin
Wed March 13th 2013 - The O2 - Dublin, Dublin
Fri March 15th 2013 - Arena, Manchester
Sat March 16th 2013 - Arena, Manchester
Sun March 17th 2013 - Echo Arena, Liverpool
Tue March 19th 2013 - Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Wed March 20th 2013 - Capital FM Arena, Nottingham
Fri March 22nd 2013 - LG Arena, Birmingham
Sat March 23rd 2013 - LG Arena, Birmingham
Sun March 31st 2013 - Echo Arena, Liverpool
Mon April 1st 2013 - O2 Arena, London
Tue April 2nd 2013 - O2 Arena, London
Thu April 4th 2013 - The O2, London
Fri April 5th 2013 - The O2, London
Mon April 8th 2013 - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Tue April 9th 2013 - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Wed April 10th 2013 - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Fri April 12th 2013 - SECC, Glasgow
Sat April 13th 2013 - Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Sun April 14th 2013 - Sheffield Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Tue April 16th 2013 - Capital FM Arena, Nottingham
Wed April 17th 2013 - LG Arena, Birmingham
Fri April 19th 2013 - Manchester Arena, Manchester
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