Ticket touts employing workers to bulk-buy for concerts

The BBC investigation employs workers’ teams for collective purchasing tickets for the largest concerts such as ticket Touts, Britain Oasis and Taylor Swift.

We have revealed some Touts, hire people abroad, known as “ticket attractions”, one of them said that a hidden journalist has bought hundreds of tickets Last year’s Eras Tour of Swift.

Our correspondent, posing as a Tout, secretly recorded the boss of a ticket withdrawal company in Pakistan, which they could set up a team for us and they could potentially buy hundreds of tickets.

England government plans New legislation to demolish the buds However, critics argue that this is not going forward enough.

Shortly after sales, which can be purchased by a limited number of fans When Oasis tickets were sold in AugustTickets for the UK concerts were listed on sales websites such as Stubhub and Viagogo. More than 6,000 £ – Approximately 40 times the face value of the ticket standing.

We have seen that the real fans have kidnapped or desperate, because they have a human army working to buy tickets for the most demanding events at the moment they went on sale.

Ali, the boss of the ticket withdrawal, showed our secret reporter that he was successful in buying tickets for popular concerts.

“I think we had a 300 Coldplay ticket, and then there was oasis the same week – we made it great,” he said.

Ali claimed that last year, making more than £ 500,000 money and thinking that others think that they “earn millions of money”.

Our research found that the stamps received tickets using multiple identities that may mean illegal automatic software and fraud.

The boss, which attracted another ticket for India, told the BBC Wales Instruption’s secret correspondent: “If I sit in your country and run my operations in your country, then it is completely illegal.

“We don’t agree with illegal things because we’re actually out of England.”

A man who has been working in the ticket industry for about 40 years showed us how he leaked to a secret online group that claims to have provided thousands of tickets using sub -methods.

Reg Walker said that the group members can produce 100,000 “tail transitions” – that they allow them to skip the software that creates an online tail for effective concerts.

He told the BBC’s Grand Ticket RIP Program that this was “100,000 people suddenly in line and pushing in front of you”.

“If you are a ticket company and an authorized re -sales company and someone decides to list hundreds of tickets for a high -demand activity … My question, where did you buy the tickets?”

Fans are usually limited to a handful of tickets when buying primary platforms such as ticketmaster.

Touts usually lists tickets on sales websites and claims to see thousands of tickets for sale.

“Them [touts] Talk on condition of anonymity and buy collectively in the hope of re -selling and making profits. “He said.

“I don’t know how they seized them, but at some point I know that they will buy tickets with serious numbers.

“You don’t let many people access because you stack the tickets.”

Viagogo said that this man refuted his claims, 73% of the sellers on his site sell less than five tickets and other vendors contain sports clubs and supporters.

Since the BBC has found evidence of thousands of Premier League football tickets, which are illegally declared, it is not only the Touts music concerts.

Since 1994, it has been a criminal offense to sell tickets for football matches in the UK unless it was authorized, and the maximum penalty is a fine of £ 1,000.

However, on March 16, we found 8,000 tickets illegally advertised for the percentage value for the Premier League match with Chelsea in Arsenal’s Premier League match.

One of these sellers was a semi -professional footballer in the UK.

Bogdan Stolboushkin advertised more than 60,000 tickets for football games last year on social media.

He sold a single ticket to our correspondent twice the value of the face.

Mr. Stolboushkin did not respond to attempts to communicate with him about these allegations.

Another illegal practice in the UK is “speculative sales”.

This is not guaranteed that Touts will actually secure a ticket and “speculative sales” was one of the reasons of two Tout He was imprisoned for fraud In 2020.

Our study found that at least 104 seats were listed in the “speculative” of the Bottlememen at Viagogo and Cardiff’s Prince Stadium in the August concert.

The exact seats were also offered for sale at both Ticketmaster, original sales point and Viagogo.

After presenting our evidence to Viagogo, he said: “The lists suspected of being contrary to our policy were removed from the site.”

The United Kingdom government is looking at measures to address and address the issue, but evidence of the difficulties can be seen. Eire.

In 2021, laws were introduced to stop the re -sale of tickets above a hundred value, but the BBC found Flowed.

This was the tickets of the group Kneecap to sell four floors worth € 59 (£ 50), and the tickets of the Six Nations V France Rugby Clash in Dublin sold £ 3,000.

Peter Aiken, one of Ireland’s greatest supporters, said that he had never heard of the company selling tickets and questioned whether the tickets had arrived.

Many ticket companies selling in Ireland are based on the BBC.

Re -sales prices of tickets and regulation of re -sales platforms Sir Keir promised the manifesto of Starmer before the last year’s general elections.

Now the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom Government He made a consultant With a price limit ranging from the original price to 30%, it brings larger fines and a new license regime.

But Dame Caroline Dinenage, President of the British government’s inter -party culture, media and sports committee, said: “This is a minefield for people who want to buy tickets for an event they want to enjoy.

“This evidence, both the government, in some cases from the police and certainly this really large online organizations to shorten such activities is not enough activity to shorten.”

Conservative deputy, this investigation “many consumers already see what already, in some cases illegal, but all situations are immoral activity in the field of ticket,” he stressed.

“People are forced to pay rates, because others often work outside the UK to buy tickets, sell them a big premium, and in some cases to sell an absolute killing to sell tickets that don’t exist.”

According to the British Cultural Secretary, the aim of the United Kingdom Government is to “strengthen consumer protection and stop the breaking of fans”.

Lisa Nandy, “the money spent on tickets, greedy buds, not the pockets, not to return to our incredible live event sector,” he added.