Ahead of Euro 2024 kicking off, Santander UK is urging football fans to stay vigilant, as new data published shows football fans lost over £113,000 last year in ticket scams.
If the same year-on-year increase in football ticket scams occurs across 2024 then Santander customers could potentially lose over £200,000. Santander’s analysis also suggests that across the whole industry the total impact could be significantly larger with at least 1,100 victims of football ticket scams looking at losing approximately £780,000.
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A ticket scam occurs when a customer purchases a ticket for an event, but the ticket either does not exist or is never received by the buyer. Across all ticket scams last year, Santander data found that where the origin of the scam was known, Facebook and X accounted for around two-thirds of all ticket scams.
19 to 34 year olds are most at risk of falling victim, accounting for 42% of all ticket scams seen by the bank. Santander has, therefore, partnered with football freestyler Ben Nuttall and Alex Barker, a football influencer and commentator, to help protect football fans.
The UEFA website is the only place to purchase official tickets, including resale tickets
While general admission tickets are currently sold out, any further tickets on sale will be sold directly by UEFA rather than on social media or elsewhere.
Chris Ainsley, Head of Fraud Risk Management at Santander said: “For many fans, this will be the first Euros since 2016 they can attend due to the pandemic, and with both England and Scotland qualifying, we know many will be desperate to get their hands on tickets to the big games.
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By GlobalData“Unfortunately, criminals know this too, and they’ll be looking for ways to exploit fans’ excitement and extort money from them. Avoid scoring an own goal by getting scammed off the pitch – so you can enjoy the action on it.”
UEFA urges fans to not let desperation get the better of them when looking for tickets and not to only buy tickets for Euro 2024 directly from UEFA.
