3,2,1, ACTION Against Ticket Touts
It’s Not Only Hurting Businesses and Artists, but Also Millions of Fans Around the Planet
If you think Britney Spears’ sellout Piece of Me tour is action-packed, then you haven’t been following the recent battle against ticket scalpers. The entertainment industry has suffered the effects of ticket touting for a long time, but major jumps in technology have enable fraudsters to attack the industry like never before – and it’s not only hurting businesses and artists, but also millions of fans around the planet.
Ticket scalping used to be as simple as criminals reselling tickets at inflated prices outside of venues. But fraudsters have switched tactics now that the majority of ticket sales takes place online. Touting is now on steroids.
Using multiple IDs, automated technology and a team of assistants, ticket touts purchase as many tickets as possible and then resell them illegally — for extremely magnified prices. In many cases, the technology that these ticket scalpers use enables them to completely deplete the primary licensed seller’s supply, which is a huge cause for concern. As the industry stands now, fans are rarely — if ever — able to secure event tickets at their original prices from licensed sellers.
Government officials have attempted to curtail ticket scalping with recent laws. The United States, for example, put the Better Online Tickets Sales Act (BOTS) into effect in 2016. This law enforces several penalties and fines for parties found guilty of using bots and other technology to mass purchase event tickets.
The UK has also tried to handle ticking touting issues with its recent Digital Economy Act that makes it a criminal offense to use bots and automated technology to purchase large quantities of tickets with the plan to resell them at higher prices.
Germany hasn’t suffered the effects of ticket touting as dramatically as other European countries, but that hasn’t stopped concerned officials from striking before the situation gets too hot. The discussion at last year’s annual meeting of BVD, Germany’s Federal Association of the Event Industry (Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft), revolved around “the measures required against the growing ulcer of the illegal ticket network.”
READ MORE: The Fight Against the Ticketing Black Market
These laws and conversations are definitely a step in the right direction against ticket scalping. Unfortunately, they haven’t stopped the majority of fraudsters from committing ticket fraud. And that’s one of the reasons why RISK IDENT developed EVE Evaluation Engine.
Using advanced algorithms and data sets, EVE is able to decipher when an individual is using a bot or another device to circumvent purchase limits that licensed sellers put on tickets. But what’s more, the state-of-the-art machine learning software is able to recognize new patterns that ticket-focused fraudsters develop. This allows ticket companies to confidently accept or decline transactions, while at the same time allows fans to purchase tickets for the shows they love at prices they love.
Ready to confidently challenge ticket touts to hit you baby, one more time? Contact our team today at contact@riskident.com to learn more about how EVE can help your business combat scalpers.
