26% of people get scammed when buying tickets from unofficial sources

Nowadays, attending a major sports event or a big concert is no longer just a hobby — it is a significant financial investment. As ticket prices reach record highs, people are understandably looking for ways to cut costs, often avoiding official sellers in favor of better deals found on social media, various internet forums, or seemingly legit resale websites.

But while the goal is usually just to save money or secure a ticket after the event is sold out, the risks can be much bigger than expected. Our research into ticket scams shows that trying to find a cheaper way into an event can often lead to losing money and missing out altogether. Our survey findings highlight how common these scams are, where people are most likely to come across them, and the real cost of chasing a lower ticket price.

Key insights

• We conducted a survey to better understand how prevalent event ticket fraud is in a market where billions¹ of event tickets are sold each year. Our survey shows that nearly one in three respondents (32%) have purchased an event ticket from someone other than the official seller. Among those buyers, more than one in four (26%) have received a fake ticket at least once. Sports events were the most targeted category, accounting for 35% of fake ticket purchases, followed by concerts (25%), festivals (18%), theater (12%), and conferences (11%).
• The places where victims first encounter these fake tickets vary widely, with social media leading as the most mentioned channel at 18%, ahead of in-person sales (16%), search engines (15%), online marketplaces and email (12% each), and reseller websites (10%). The remaining 16% reported first encountering fake tickets through various other channels, including online forums, messaging apps, and pop-up ads.
• The majority of victims (68%) who purchased fake tickets lost between $50 and $250, while 19% lost less than $50 and 13% lost more than $250. Among those who lost money, 69% reported the incident to authorities or platforms, while 31% took no action. Among those who reported, 45% received a full refund, 24% received a partial refund, and 31% received no money back. In other words, reporting the scam gave victims a strong chance of recovery, as 7 in 10 recovered at least some of their money.
• When asked why they decided to purchase event tickets from an unofficial source, victims cited a variety of reasons. The leading factor was misplaced trust: 44% of respondents said the seller or website seemed legitimate. Price was the second biggest driver, with 37% choosing a good deal, while 35% were influenced by a convincing advertisement or promotion. Another 32% said they bought from unofficial sellers because tickets were sold out elsewhere, and lastly, 25% relied on a recommendation from a friend or contact.
• Despite our survey sample being evenly split between male and female respondents, fake ticket purchases were not. Men accounted for 64% of fake ticket buyers, while women accounted for 36%. When it comes to how victims realized they had been scammed, the most common method was verifying the ticket as invalid with the venue or platform beforehand (36%), followed by noticing typos or incorrect details on the ticket itself (33%), and being warned by a friend or family member (31%). However, not all victims caught the fraud in time: more than one in four (27%) only discovered the scam when their ticket failed to scan at the venue door, while nearly three in ten (29%) paid but never received a ticket.

Methodology and sources

For this study, we conducted an online survey of 1000 respondents in the United States on May 18–25, 2026, to better understand the prevalence of event ticket fraud. The sample was nearly evenly split by gender (50.1% male, 49.5% female, and 0.4% other) and included participants across the following age groups:

• 18–24: 12%
• 25–34: 19%
• 35–44: 19%
• 45–54: 17%
• 55–64: 18%
• 65–74: 14%

The questionnaire comprised 10 questions, covering the following topics:

1. Have you ever purchased an event ticket from someone other than the official ticket seller?

2. Were you satisfied with your purchase or was it a scam?

3. What was the approximate average financial loss from the fake ticket purchase(s)?

4. Where did you first encounter the fake event ticket offer?

5. Which type of event was the fake ticket for?

6. How did you realize the ticket was fake?

7. What was your main reason for purchasing the fake event ticket?

8. Which payment method did you use for the purchase?

9. Did you report the incident to any authorities or platforms?

10. Were you able to recover any of your lost funds?

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