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Home / Entertainment

Ticket scam victims: 'What a harsh lesson'

Siena Yates
By Siena Yates
NZ Herald·
20 Apr, 2017 09:00 PM4 mins to read

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An Adele fan has spent $1000 on potentially fake tickets using the reselling website Viagogo.

More jilted fans have revealed their stories of being caught out by ticket re-selling websites, with one paying more than $3000 for dud tickets.

Following a Herald story on Thursday morning about the state of the ticket scalping problem in New Zealand, more Kiwis have come out, sharing their stories of frustration.

Kim Munro paid $375 for $190 Don Henley tickets, Debora Lee paid $671 for Santana tickets which should've cost $320, Helen Ridgen purchased tickets worth $351 but was charged more than $1000.

And they're just the tip of the iceberg.

And while New Zealand's industry and consumer groups are making moves to tackle the issue, people are still being caught out on a shockingly frequent basis.

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Here are some of their stories.

'I will never be that stupid again'

Naire Marwood wanted to surprise her children with four tickets to Adele's concert when the superstar was in town in March, but as someone who isn't "a very confident computer user", she was taken unawares.

She went on the first site she saw - Viagogo - and "for some stupid reason I paid just over $3000 for the tickets".

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"The money came out of my Visa very smartly. I contacted my daughter, who said I'd probably just been scammed. I felt sick for weeks. I tried to get the money back from the bank, no luck.

"I called Ticketmaster thinking that it was associated with the Viagogo site and, although [they were] sympathetic, they obviously couldn't help me. It's been a very stressful exercise and I have learnt a very expensive lesson.

"I had never heard of the Viagogo site before and I will never ever be that stupid again."

The fan that just got 'duped' today

Susy Smith literally just "got duped" by Viagogo today.

Discover more

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What the hell! $1k for Adele

22 Mar 08:30 AM
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Anger over dud $1000 Adele tickets

24 Mar 04:00 PM
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Fans caught out by huge ticket markups

20 Apr 07:00 AM
New Zealand

Consumer NZ to join international investigation into ticket resellers

19 Apr 06:22 PM

She bought four tickets to take her grandchildren to children's show 13-Storey Treehouse and was quoted a price in New Zealand dollars.

But when she received the confirmation email, the quoted price was inexplicably in Russian Rubles.

"I am not sure if the tickets are genuine, but one thing is for sure, I have cancelled my credit card. It has been a worrying experience and I will be much more vigilant from now on, as a result."

Beware the booking fee

View this post on Instagram

Melbourne, VIC / Etihad Stadium / Mar 19

A post shared by Adele (@adele) on Mar 22, 2017 at 3:33pm PDT

Ian Sutcliffe bought four "so-called premium tickets" to Adele at $490 each only to be stung with a $490 booking fee and $5 handling fee totalling more than $2450.

When he printed them off, the tickets were only worth $102 each.

A harsh lesson

View this post on Instagram

Auckland / Mt Smart Stadium / Mar 26

A post shared by Adele (@adele) on Mar 28, 2017 at 6:52am PDT

Dale Banks "got ripped off too".

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Banks bought four tickets to see Adele off what he thought was a legitimate site until he got the $2277 credit card charge from Viagogo.

Once printed, the tickets turned out to be for $102 seats in farthest south stand under a totally different name.

Banks ended up buying four more tickets - "legitimate ones this time" - for fear of turning up at the venue to find the tickets had been sold to multiple people.

"I feel extremely aggrieved. What a harsh lesson I have learnt."

"I need to be very careful"

View this post on Instagram

Perth, WA / Domain Stadium / Feb 28

A post shared by Adele (@adele) on Mar 1, 2017 at 6:24pm PST

Mary Cheung was a first time buyer, "so I had no idea about the way [sites] are cheating".

Cheung bought three tickets for Adele's concert, thinking they were $200 tickets but somehow wound up paying a total of $1787.

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Viagogo said the total cost was the result of the added booking and admin fees and "Adele is a top singer so the charge will be more".

"I didn't want to miss any chance to see Adele's concert, so I just left it. When I printed out my tickets, they were under another person's name and my hubby said it may be a scam and I may not be allowed to go in the concert."

It was all okay in the end and Cheung got to enjoy the show.

But, she says next time, "if I buy tickets again, I need to be very careful".

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