How to Avoid Ticket Scams For That Halloween Event

This Halloween is filled with tricks instead of treats as scammers find different ways to scam their victims out of money. They realize just how much their victims love haunted houses and amusement parks decorated for Halloween, so they try to create fake websites that sell these supposed tickets. However, what victims don’t realize is these tickets are fake and they are actually giving away their money to a scammer. This is why it’s important to know how ticket scams work and how to avoid them this Halloween season. 

How Do Halloween Ticket Scams Work

Fake Websites

Victims search the web for tickets to their favorite scary theme parks and haunted houses for Halloween. They find websites claiming to sell tickets to these events for super cheap. Then, they decide they can’t pass up this irresistible deal and decide to purchase the tickets on the website. They add the tickets to their cart and go to the checkout page, only to find out that they need to enter their personal and financial information to proceed.

Once they enter their personal and financial information, the scam website claims that the victim receives their tickets in their email inbox. However, once they get to the event and try to scan their barcode, the ticket doesn’t read on the company’s system. That’s when they realize they spent a bunch of money on a fake ticket that will not get them into the event no matter how hard they try.

Robocalls

Victims search the web for tickets to their favorite events and find deals on them. Listed under the deals are customer service phone numbers that claim they sell these tickets at unbelievable deals. Victims call this customer service number to purchase the advertised tickets, and scammers claim that they are able to buy these tickets at a cheap price.

Victims give the scammer their personal and financial information requested thinking that the scammers need it to complete the purchase. However, scammers are able to take this information and commit identity fraud while draining their victims’ bank accounts. 

How to Avoid Ticket Scams This Halloween

• Don’t give anyone online or over the phone your personal or financial information.
• Don’t purchase tickets from unfamiliar websites.
• If you are going to purchase tickets from a website you are unfamiliar with, do your research on reviews before shopping on that website.
• Only shop at websites that have good reviews and avoid websites with bad or no reviews.
• Only shop at official event websites such as Disneyland, Knotts Scary Farm, Universal Studios Horror Nights, etc. for your tickets.
• If a ticket is sold out on the official website, this means that the event is sold out and you most likely won’t find an official ticket from anyone to that event.
• If a website has deals that aren’t anywhere else, it is most likely a scam.
• Avoid phishing emails that advertise tickets at cheap prices and don’t click on any links.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You!

At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with when figuring out the things to watch out for when trying to avoid Halloween online shopping scams!