Belladrum fans hit by ticket scam
MEAN scammers are targeting Belladrum fans by selling non-existent tickets to the music festival online.
Organisers of the sell-out Tartan Heart event, set to take place near Beauly next month, have received complaints from people who have bought "tickets" online, only to find they have been duped as the touts don’t have any briefs to sell.
They say several people have fallen victim to the scams on websites including Gumtree, Ebay and Facebook.
Touts have also been selling on children’s tickets to the event, which were available for free.
The matter has been reported to police.
Festival director Joe Gibbs said: "Since Belladrum tickets sold out, various ticket scams have been operating over Gumtree, Ebay and social networking sites including Facebook. These principally involve people offering tickets they don’t own and, despite our direct advice from to customers, some have passed over money without having the tickets in their hands and have consequently lost the money as the tickets probably never existed in the first place.
"This situation has been reported to the police. Our advice to customers who still wish to acquire tickets to Belladrum and wish to risk buying them in the open market is: never hand over any funds until you have the whole ticket and counterfoil in your hand and you can check the hologram. Preferably use another ticket you know is genuine to make a comparison."
He added: "We have been very disappointed by the amount of scamming and touting of Belladrum tickets this year, and by the persons who have been selling the free 12-and-under child tickets. Bella has sold out three years in succession now, and earlier each time. We will have to consider whether we can make changes to our ticketing system next year so that genuine Bella fans can get their tickets safely and at the normal price when stocks run out."
He advised anyone wishing to buy tickets from those cancelling unwanted briefs to buy them online at www.skiddle.com
He explained: "As regards electronic tickets, don’t buy them in any way other than directly through www.skiddle.com. The electronic tickets we have been trialling this year offer a route to avoid fraud if they are bought and sold through Skiddle who have been refunding booking fees as well for people who have wanted to cancel their tickets. A limited number were re-offered by Skiddle at 9am this morning and sold immediately. If any more are returned, they will be re-offered."
Taking place on August 5 and 6, the festival will feature bands including Texas, Deacon Blue and Echo and the Bunnymen.
