Oasis fans worried over tickets amid rise in scam sales

Anxious Oasis fans are worried their tickets are fake amid a rise in scammers ahead of the band’s sold-out shows in Edinburgh.

The Gallagher brothers will make their highly anticipated return to Scotland when they kick off their three sold-out shows at Murrayfield on Friday.

However, as the concert nears, fans with and without tickets are concerned about falling victim to scams.

Some fans, like Skye, say there’s still uncertainty about whether they’ll actually get to see the band despite paying for a ticket.

“We didn’t get tickets in the original ballot. Eventually, my kids clubbed together they managed to get us two tickets, but they did have to get them off one of the unofficial resale platforms, and we’re still dubious,” she told STV News.

She added that her tickets have come through, but she has concerns over whether they are legit.

“You hear about people not getting in with them, so we’re trying to remain optimistic and positive.”

Newlyweds Laura and Rachel opted for tickets halfway across the world, instead of risking getting scammed here.

The couple tried to get tickets in the UK and America before they managed to secure them for the shows down under.

“We entered all the ballots for all the presales for the UK, tried on the day and were like 80,000 in the queue, and then we tried for America because that came out next, and we didn’t get anywhere, and then we got presale access for Australia,” the couple said.

“We were planning to go anyway, to Australia this year, so it just kind of solidified our decision.”

They added: “It was probably the most difficult concert I’ve ever had to try and get a ticket for because you don’t know if you’re buying your tickets off those sites if you’re actually even going to get your tickets.”

Scammers are also finding new ways to gain customers’ trust outside of ticket-selling sites.

Kevin Robertson, chief technology officer at Acumen Cyber, said private groups on sites WhatsApp and Facebook are potentially the “most dangerous” place for scams.

He added: “We’ve had reports of things like nursery groups and school groups, people gaining access to those or private neighbourhood groups, that kind of thing, so all of a sudden these people are in these groups and they’ve almost got an established level of trust already, how else would they get access to that group without being invited? So that’s the problem, you need to really not trust anybody unless you know them very well.”