An estimated 500,000 Australians aged between 18 and 64 have been scammed when buying tickets online in the past 12 months, according to a new survey.
Consumers reported that tickets either did not turn up or were for the wrong seat. Eighty one per cent of those scammed bought their tickets from eBay or Gumtree.
The research was commissioned by ticket marketplace viagogo and conducted by Galaxy Research during September 2013 using a representative sample of 1000 Australians. The data was weighted by age, gender and region to reflect population estimates.
Over 95 per cent of those surveyed said they were sceptical about the trustworthiness of sellers on auction websites or online classifieds.
In addition, 93 per cent indicated they are wary about buying tickets from auction websites.
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A SCAMwatch spokeswoman said that scammers sometimes pretend to sell a product online just so they can steal a victim’s credit card or bank account details.
“Similarly, they may take your money but send you a faulty or worthless product instead – or even nothing at all,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
She added that most online auction sites put a lot of effort into spotting scammers, which is why scammers will often try to get people to make a deal outside the website.
“They may claim that the winner of an auction that you were bidding in has pulled out, and then offer the item for sale to you. Once they have your money, you will never hear from them again and the auction site will not be able to help you.”
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