It has been revealed that ticket scams for the Oasis reunion tour has cost fans over £2 million, according to Lloyds Banking Group.
More than 900,000 tickets were bought via Ticketmaster when the tour was announced last year, with millions of people missing out. This has led to an unprecedented amount of scams taking place.
The bank has announced that on average, over 5,000 people lost £436 on ticket scams. With one specific case seeing a fan lose £1,700 whilst trying to get a ticket for the anticipated tour.
Lloyds added that Oasis fans accounted for more than half of all reported ticket scams that have taken place so far this year.
Edinburgh, Warrington and Manchester were named as the places with the highest number of victims, with the top 10 locations making up a quarter of the cases, with people aged between 35 and 44 being the most likely to fall victim.
Liz Zeigler, the Fraud Prevention Director at Lloyds, said: “The Oasis tour is the largest target for ticket scammers, with millions of pounds of fans’ money stolen before the gigs even kick off.
“The fact that so many cases start with fake listings on social media, often in violation of the platforms’ own rules, underscores the importance of these companies taking stronger action to tackle ticket scams.
“It’s vital that customers feel empowered to shop safely online. Buying directly from reputable, authorised retailers is the only way to guarantee you’re paying for a genuine ticket.”
The Oasis tour began to make negative headlines almost instantly due to fans having to contend with high queues and the hugely inflated prices due to ‘dynamic’ pricing. This led to investigations by both the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission.
Hayley Fletcher, interim Senior Director of Consumer Protection at the CMA, said in a statement: “Fans reported problems when buying Oasis tickets from Ticketmaster and we decided those concerns warranted investigation.
“We’re concerned that Oasis fans didn’t get the information they needed or may have been misled into buying tickets they thought were better than they were.”
Oasis and Ticketmaster attempted to tackle the issues of scammers when they announced that they planned to cancel more than 50,000 tickets that were sold via non-endorsed secondary ticket sites. They began this process in February, but many fans have claimed that they have been wrongfully targeted by the scheme.
The controversies surrounding the reunion have arguably overshadowed the biggest UK tour announcement in years, with everyone from the European Commission to the UK Government having a say on the matter, with the latter launching a consultation at the start of the year into the ticket re-sale market.
The aim of the consultation is to “better protect fans, improve access to live events and support the growth of the UK’s world leading live events sector.”
Oasis have been dominating the music news since they got the band back together, being the most google searched UK artist in 2024.
In other news, the line-up for their touring band was recently revealed as their former drummer shared a heartfelt message of support to his former bandmates ahead of the record breaking tour. Check it out here.
