CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Fans’ fury over Facebook ticket scam

The social media giant is called to take action after music lovers are left out of pocket
Andy Lopata paid £100 to a scammer named “Sammie-Lou Teasley” thinking he was going to receive tickets for a gig by Slash, the Guns n’ Roses guitarist
Andy Lopata paid £100 to a scammer named “Sammie-Lou Teasley” thinking he was going to receive tickets for a gig by Slash, the Guns n’ Roses guitarist

Music fans have been warned not to buy gig tickets on Facebook because fraudsters are using profiles on the site to steal thousands of pounds.

Details of the scams come two weeks after Times Money revealed that £4.5 million has been stolen since April by fraudulent investment schemes that advertised on the website using celebrity names. Facebook promised to launch a dedicated scam-reporting button for users, but not until May.

Fraudsters are blitzing the fan pages of pop stars with messages claiming that they have tickets for gigs and asking those interested to send them direct messages. Once a user sends money for the tickets to an account online, the scammers disappear.

Although fraudulent profiles have been reported to Facebook by several scam victims, many