Searches for ticket scams are up 900% in 2025—here's how to protect yourself

I’ll be honest, even I was shocked when I saw this number. Stories about ticket scams flood our feeds, and too many of our friends and family are experiencing them firsthand. 

Searches for "ticket scams" have absolutely exploded this year—we're talking about a 900% increase. What started as the occasional "buyer beware" post has turned into a daily flood of people getting burned. It’s not the same routine scam, either. New AI-based tools are creating capabilities unlocking creativity for scammers to find new ways to convince you.

Here's what really got my attention though: these scams aren’t just happening to first-time buyers anymore. Last month, a friend in tech told me how they’d lost $900 buying Coldplay tickets from someone on Facebook. This is someone who works every day in tech and AI. The seller had put in work—a convincing profile and ticketmaster screenshots. The thing is, scammers have gotten really good at this, quickly doubling down on tactics that work and sharing it across their networks.

But here's what I've learned after watching and hearing thousands of these cases: once you know what to look for, most of these scams become obvious. The problem is now that these tactics are rapidly changing as AI offers new tools like deepfake video, or screenshots and previous trust signals like mutual friends, account age or karma are compromised due to millions of hacked accounts for sale, and reputation farming.

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Why this is happening now

Everyone wants to blame "people being more desperate" or “this generation” that's not it.

The real reason ticket scams are everywhere now? Three things happened at once, and scammers figured out how to exploit all of them.

AI broke everything we thought we knew about trust signals

This is the big one, and most people still don't know how widespread it is.

I’m talking about how AI has dramatically increased the speed and quality of creating fake trust signals that we used to believe. Paired with wide open marketplaces to buy social media accounts with history, friends, reviews or contributions it creates a highly convincing interaction. 

Last week I saw someone selling Lollapalooza wristbands on Facebook. To try and demonstrate their legitimacy, they posted a photo of the wristbands along with a piece of paper with their name handwritten on it. For the last few years, this has been a common tactic to avoid scammers just using other people’s photos. The next day, I saw the same picture used, same handwriting but a different name. Now, who’s the scammer here? Both pictures look almost identical.

It’s not just proof pictures, its ticket screenshots, email confirmations and even video calls. Scammers leverage these increasingly available and cheap tools that can efficiently recreate the historical signals we’ve used to build confidence that we aren’t getting scammed. 

Social media became the marketplace

Fees for tickets have gone through the roof. Buying or selling on platforms like Ticketmaster or Stubhub leaves both people paying huge fees to transact with each other. 

As these fees have risen, along with overall cost of living, fans are looking to find ways to avoid those fees and get a deal. Social media has become the wild west marketplace. Each platform treats peer-to-peer sales a bit differently, but overall they try to be as arms-length as possible. Giving you some simple tips to stay safe—but they make it clear you’re on your own. 

Now everyone's buying on Facebook Marketplace, Reddit threads, Instagram DMs, even TikTok comments. The problem? These platforms have basically zero verification requirements. Anyone can create an account and start "selling" tickets within minutes.

Facebook Marketplace is especially brutal because it feels safe (learn more about Facebook Marketplace scams). You see the person's profile, their friends, their photos from last weekend. But creating all of that fake history is easier than ever.

Social media has amazing reach, which makes it easy to find buyers and sellers for what you want, and by going direct you avoid fees—but right now it also means you have to do all the work yourself to stay safe, and if something happens you’re on your own.

The desperation factor is real

Yeah, people get desperate when their favorite artist announces a tour. But the real issue is timing.

Scammers have figured out exactly when to strike. It's not right when tickets go on sale—it's later, when the official tickets are sold out and people start panicking. That's when people act quickly, and make mistakes. 

We see this pattern play out time and time again as big events near. In the 24-48 hours before a big show or festival comments and posts about “scammer warnings” explode.

Scammers have mapped out these events, and the exact timing when people are in a rush, and mods or admins have limited capacity to deal with the influx of requests, or reports.

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The new scam playbook

While the old advice about "if it seems too good to be true” is still helpful—it’s not that simple anymore. Modern scammers don't use obviously fake pricing anymore. They've gotten much smarter.

They price just below market (not way below)

The "$50 front row seats" scam is dead. Nobody falls for that anymore.

Instead, scammers research actual market prices and list tickets for maybe 10-20% less. If similar seats are going for $400, they'll list for $350. Just enough of a deal to be attractive, not enough to trigger immediate suspicion.

Their stories have evolved too. Instead of "emergency sale," it's more like "my friend got transferred for work" or "we decided to go to the Saturday show instead." Believable reasons that explain the small discount.

The fake verification arms race

This is where things get really sophisticated. Scammers know buyers want proof, so they've gotten incredibly good at providing it.

I'm seeing fake Ticketmaster transfer confirmations that include real order numbers (stolen from other transactions), fake credit card statements showing the purchase, even fake text message threads with the "original seller."

The newest trick is also fake ticket platform websites, where they are sending you a confirmation email that leads to an entire fake version of FrontGate or Ticketmaster’s website.

Even video calls aren’t that reliable anymore. Scammers can easily show you a fake app or email. 

The social proof scam

Here's one that's really taking off: fake buyer testimonials.

Scammers create multiple fake accounts and use them to leave positive comments on their ticket listings. "Just bought from Sarah, great experience!" or "Legit seller, got my tickets transferred within 10 minutes!"

The comments look completely natural because they're not overly positive. They're just... normal. Which makes them way more convincing than obvious fake reviews.

It’s also happening a lot on Reddit with upvotes or karma farming to create a perception of being trustworthy. Often subreddits rely on account age and karma to be the first line of defense in stopping scammers from posting or engaging, but that’s rapidly becoming less effective. Scammers also wait for “ISO” or ”WTB” posts and then move directly to DM’s in order to avoid any restrictions on the subreddit level.  

The admin verified groups

There is a huge range in the quality of Facebook groups when it comes to tickets. If you just search for the event you’re looking for and then “tickets” you’ll get a list of hundreds of groups saying “trusted”, “official”, “verified”. 

These groups rank high on Facebook’s search result as over the years they’ve accumulated thousands of members. Many of these groups were started for something else, which may have been taken over or had their admin accounts compromised and rebranded as ticket groups. At times the activity in these groups can be legitimate, but the scammers who run them are pushing people to transact through the admins. It’s clever as there are legitimate groups where the admins are involved in transactions. They are highly knowledgeable, trusted and want to help facilitate transactions in the group. But these scammer admins take this model, and leverage it to create “verified sellers” that they’ve “vetted”. Unfortunately these groups continue to thrive because the admins are scammers, they can shut down posts or comments that call out their fraud.

The identity theft angle

Some ticket "sellers" aren't even trying to sell you anything. They're harvesting personal information.

They'll get deep into negotiations, then say they need your full name and address "for the transfer." Or they want to "verify you're a real buyer" by asking for a photo of your ID. Some even request credit card info to "hold the tickets."

Then they disappear, but they've got your personal information to use for other scams or identity theft.

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Where this gets really bad

The scam patterns vary by region, but certain cities and event types are getting hit harder than others.

Sports towns during playoff season

Cities with passionate fanbases are scammer magnets when playoffs start. Toronto during a Raptors playoff run, Boston when the Bruins make it deep, Pittsburgh during any Steelers postseason—these places see absolutely massive spikes in fake ticket listings.

The scammers know exactly which teams have the most active fanbases. They time their fake listings to go live right after big wins when ticket demand peaks.

Music festival season is a nightmare

April through September is basically open season for festival scams. Coachella, Ultra, Lollapalooza—every major festival generates months of fake listings.

The thing about festival scams is they often target younger buyers who are more comfortable with social media transactions but less experienced with fraud. Festival passes have also dramatically increased in price over the last few years, making each target more valuable for a scammer, which means they're willing to spend more time or resources.

Music festival season is a nightmare

When an artist announces a surprise show or adds dates, scammers are ready within hours. 

The speed is impressive and terrifying. These aren't random opportunists—they're organized operations with systems in place.

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How they're gaming each platform

Every social platform has become a hunting ground, and scammers have adapted their tactics for each one.

Facebook: the fake friend network

Facebook is ground zero because it feels the safest. You can see the seller's profile, their friends, their photos. Except none of that matters anymore.

The new Facebook scammer profiles are impressive. Years of fake posts, hundreds of fake friends (also scammer accounts), photos tagged at local businesses. They look more real than some actual profiles.

Increasingly, these are real people's compromised or sold profiles. These accounts are now run by scammers, making it almost impossible to differentiate.

We’ve noticed an influx in direct impersonation accounts. Scammers copying exact profiles of more well known members in communities—so when they DM you or comment on your post you might assume they are the same person. 

One check that can be effective at avoiding facebook ticket scams is looking at a user’s profile link URL, instead of their profile name. If the name in the URL is drastically different from their profile name that could be a red flag they are pretending to be someone else or it's a compromised account that’s now being used for impersonation. 

Reddit: the karma game

Reddit scammers focus on building karma quickly through generic comments on popular posts, then use that credibility to sell fake tickets.

But here's a helpful tip: check comment history. Real Reddit users have conversations. Scammer accounts just post generic responses like "This!" or "So true!" to build karma without engaging authentically. Look for long-form comments that demonstrate real knowledge or engagement. This can be a lot of effort, but unfortunately karma or account age aren’t as reliable as they used to be. 

You can also check resources like the Universal Scammer List, to look-up the username of a potential seller to see if they’ve been reported in the past. It’s helpful, but often once a scammer account has been flagged, they're using a new one. 

Instagram: the lifestyle scam

Instagram ticket scams are often the most elaborate because they rely on fake lifestyle content. Scammer accounts post fake photos of concerts they "attended," fake stories about being season ticket holders, fake content about loving specific artists.

They'll build these accounts for months before using them to scam, creating entire fake personalities around being music or sports fans. 

Like Facebook, compromised accounts, copied content, and the underground marketplaces of selling accounts creates a huge supply of highly convincing accounts that scammers can rinse and repeat with. Unlike Facebook Groups or subreddits, there are no moderators or admins to provide some defense—so all too often scam accounts continue to exist and operate social media ticket scams.

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How to actually protect yourself (beyond the obvious stuff)

There are so many tips out there, and unfortunately now scammers are moving so quickly it's hard to keep up with the latest tactic. Each platform also has different risks, so you need different strategies based on where you’re buying or selling to avoid fake tickets.

Tips just won’t solve the problem either. We all know that when we really want those tickets—we’re going to move quickly and too often forget to check off each item of a 10 step list. 

Here’s the simple universal playbook to:

1. Not get your time wasted from scam accounts
2. Avoid oversharing personal information
3. Avoid losing your hard earned money
4. Have the same simple approach across Facebook, Reddit, Instagram...etc

Before sending money

Download, and get verified on the goConfirm app. It’s free and takes less than two minutes to get verified using government-issued ID and a 3D face scan. 

1. Create an invite code in the app for the tickets you’re buying “2 tickets to Coldplay Miami”
2. Share the invite code with your potential seller and ask them to connect in the app.
3. Scammers consistently refuse to use goConfirm. They don’t want to reveal their real identity, and face the potential legal consequences of their fraudulent actions.

Sending money

1. Once connected on goConfirm, use verified messaging to coordinate the price, or details. There’s a digital record of your interaction in case anything happens.
2. Request their payment method from their vault.
3. Highly recommend asking to use PayPal Goods & Services as another layer of protection on top of goConfirm.

After sending money

1. If in the very rare case something goes wrong, the goConfirm fraud support team is there to help. You’re not on your own. They can also issue lifetime bans, so if there is a scammer—they can’t do it again. 
2. You’ve got access to goConfirm's Payment Loss Protection up to $250 if the seller ghosts you
3. If you also used PayPal G&S you have their buyer protection as well. ‍

‍goConfirm has helped tens of thousands of people safely buy and sell tickets on social media with over 99% scam-free interactions.

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The bottom line

Look, I get it. Nobody wants to be the paranoid person who treats every ticket seller like a potential scammer. But the reality is that ticket fraud has evolved into a sophisticated industry, and our strategies to protect ourselves need to evolve too. We need more than just tips, especially when they become outdated within a few months when scammers have a new tactic—we need capable, modern tools.

The 900% increase in ticket scam searches isn't going to reverse itself. If anything, it's going to get worse as AI tools become more accessible and social media commerce continues growing.

The solution isn't to stop buying tickets from people—some of the best deals are still found through social media. The solution is pairing anti-scam technology like goConfirm before you send money, along with protected payment methods.

Don't become another statistic. The next time you're looking for tickets on social media, ask them to connect first on goConfirm.