Ticket Scams Are Plaguing The Performing Arts

Ticket fraud and mishandling doesn’t just impact big acts and their fans. Local performing arts organizations are also feeling the pain and fighting back.

With the second anniversary of Ticketmaster’s Nov. 15, 2022 meltdown approaching – the botched release of Taylor Swift tour tickets that outraged the world’s largest fanbase – it’s easy to trace the fallout. Multiple class action and civil lawsuits filed against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment. Grassroots organizations and coalitions formed to advocate for ticket reform. Over 100 bills introduced at the state and federal levels, along with hearings and investigations culminating in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice in May 2024. 

Something else hasn’t changed: the live entertainment industry sector least able to withstand customer alienation and lost revenue – the performing arts – receiving the least attention when it comes to ticket-related issues. But even venues with programming that leans more toward Beethoven than Bad Bunny face mounting challenges from ticketing scams.

“Bad actors are increasing across every type of venue at every level. It’s a lucrative, albeit shady, business,” said Renee Bodie, general manager of Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo.

In ticketing parlance, “bad actors” doesn’t just mean scalpers utilizing bots to purchase large amounts of tickets right when they go on sale and then reselling them at exorbitant prices. It also means anyone who tries to scam, mislead or deceive patrons into thinking they’re buying from an authentic box office or ticket seller by cloning websites or creating URLs that mimic official ticket-selling sites, or just selling counterfeit tickets or the same ticket multiple times.

“Only a small percentage of our tickets end up on secondary sites, but patrons still fall victim to deceptive practices,” Bodie said. “They often pay hundreds in fees for tickets that are never received or are fraudulent. It’s heartbreaking to see someone pay $300 for a $58 ticket – or worse, for a ticket they never receive.”

At South Coast Repertory, Brian Robin, director of media and public relations, said the issue of people buying from third-party resellers happens to a “minor extent … usually for our more popular shows. It’s problematic because people are paying much, much higher ticket prices and fees from what we charge.”

SCR does have a disclaimer on the web page for its most popular show, its annual production of “A Christmas Carol,” reminding patrons that “SCR.org and the South Coast Repertory box office are the only authorized sellers of tickets,”  and that secondary sellers such as Vivid Seats, Stub Hub and others are not authorized sellers. “Purchase guaranteed tickets safely and securely at scr.org or by calling (714) 708-5555.”

The Pacific Symphony doesn’t have its own venue, performing mostly at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts as well as other venues, including Soka. Amber Jackson has been its ticket director for the past year. She said she has encountered patrons with fake tickets “a handful of times,” but each case is handled seriously. 

“When someone arrives thinking they have a ticket for the symphony, and it turns out to be fake, they’re not focused on how they got scammed – they want us to make it right. They don’t want a lecture on where to buy tickets; they just want us to help, and as an organization, we try to make their evening better.”

As a nonprofit, such situations put the Pacific Symphony’s reputation on the line. “How we treat our patrons comes back to us. If they feel they’re only getting lip service, they won’t return, and they’ll tell others not to as well,” Jackson said.

More common than fake tickets at the symphony, Jackson said, are chargeback requests from credit card companies for tickets purchased and never used. Often, these transactions were made by bots, leading to extra workload for ticket staff members who are “already wearing multiple hats,” she said, who have to sift through dead-end phone numbers and “gobbledygook” emails to figure out who purchased the ticket.

To combat ticket manipulation, the symphony recently took two measures: It contracted with True Tickets, a digital ticketing service that allows the box office to track who buys each ticket and whether it’s being resold, and it has phased out print-at-home tickets.

“If somebody’s calling us and we’re talking to them and they want the tickets mailed to them, we will certainly still do that,” she said. “It’s just online with all the bots and stuff. We figured that this was perhaps a way that we can get control of this, and so far, that seems to be working. The chargeback rate has certainly dropped. Of course, we just started our season a month ago, and typically a chargeback cycle is about a month, so we’ll see.”

At Soka, Bodie said, patrons can purchase ticket protection through Fanshield for a small fee; but while she fully supports venues taking proactive measures, the reality is that “bad actors are becoming better at creating websites that look like official venues and lure patrons into purchasing fake tickets. Only legislation will bring significant relief.”

However, despite two years of legislative buzz, no laws have yet been enacted at the federal or California state level. Any ticket reform legislation gets the attention of Live Nation in Sacramento and its influence was clear this year when the two bills that would have impacted Ticketmaster’s business model the most were amended so heavily that their sponsors ultimately pulled them.

Federal bills with the most traction were backed by Fix the Tix, a coalition supporting reform. The TICKET Act (short for The Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act), passed by the House in May, mandates increased transparency in ticket sales, protection against counterfeits and accountability for illegal practices. A Senate counterpart, the Fans First Act, has garnered support, including a public letter from 300 artists and a petition signed by 65,000 people urging its passing. 

However, Live Nation’s lobbying budget ballooned from $315,000 in 2019 to $2.38 million in 2023, and it supports both bills lending some credence to those who believe that in trying to reform the ticketing system, Congress would wind up benefiting Ticketmaster even more. But that hasn’t stopped the National Independent Venue Association, the main force behind Fix the Tix, from pushing for the act to be included in a comprehensive end-of-year ticketing reform package.

Breaking up Live Nation through the DOJ’s antitrust suit would be a game-changer, but the trial isn’t scheduled to start until at least March 2026 and could drag on for five years with appeals.

So, with technology allowing scammers and other bad actors to become even more proficient, and in lieu of legislation and monopoly busting, what’s to be done?

“It’s not just symphony orchestras. It’s opera, it’s theater. It happens across the board,” Jackson said. “I know industry-wide everybody’s trying to get a handle on how to handle these third-party bad actors. The best thing we can do as a venue is to educate people: Buy directly from the organization, and if something about a website or URL looks off, pick up the phone and ask if it’s legit. And if a ticket price looks too good to be true, it probably is.”

Renee Bodie, quoted in this story, is a member of the Advisory Board for Culture OC.