Growing ticket bot use ‘threatening’ gig industry

Consumers will eventually be unable to purchase gig tickets to in-demand events without using automated solutions like bots, cybersecurity experts have warned.

NordVPN says the number of online ticket bots, designed to bypass website queues and purchase tickets faster than human users, is continuously growing. 

The company found evidence of online ticket bots, developed to buy tickets to Oasis’s forthcoming UK tour, on sale for as little as £6 on the general sale date. Other customer ticket bots are available for up to £240.

“The terms and conditions of ticket platforms say that users cannot employ bots to buy tickets, but implementation and legal liability are questionable,” said Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity advisor at NordVPN.

“Hospitality agencies widely use ticketing bots to snag premium seats to include in their package deals. Ticket resellers buy many tickets to profit from consumers who are left without tickets. At some point, there won’t be any other way to get a ticket apart from using a bot.”

While ticket-selling platforms are taking action to tackle the problem, the experts warn developments in artificial intelligence mean bots are becoming more efficient at bypassing barriers designed to differentiate between humans and machines.

NordVPN says consumers who use ticket bots are exposing themselves to cybersecurity and privacy threats. The company’s research found at least five million people, including 45,000 from the UK, have had their personal information stolen and sold on bot markets, with evidence of some ticket bots stealing customers’ financial data, or using it to buy more tickets.

There is also no certainty a bot will succeed in purchasing tickets and even if it does, there is risk a ticket may not be valid, due to evidence pointing towards scalpers selling duplicate or fraudulent tickets. 

“The only way to fight the bots market is to not buy tickets from anywhere but the original site because it’s not always easy to tell which tickets on resale websites rely on scalping practices,” Warmenhowen added.

Government intervention

Meanwhile, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has reaffirmed the government’s intention to address price transparency of ticketing for music events.

Speaking at the Beyond the Music conference and music festival last Friday (11 October), Nandy said the government’s forthcoming consultation into ticket touting will look into resales that inflate prices. 

“It’s been going on for far too long. The commitment is we are going to sort this out. It’s not a question of whether but how,” Nandy said.

She added that the government doesn’t want to see a repeat of the Oasis ticket sale, which consumer experts have since said may have breached consumer law.

Nandy also revealed that the government is set to respond to a government report, which called for big arena operators to establish a ticket levy scheme, within the next few weeks.