An email pinged into my inbox the other day from the Office of Fair Trading, announcing the launch of a new campaign warning West Endtheatregoers to watch out for online ticketing scams.
The Just Tick it campaign (not sure Nike is going to like that much) onthe OFT's website Consumer Direct claims that scam artists are selling non-existent seats for West End shows, leaving unwitting fans about £60 out of pocket and without a ticket.
Michele Shambrook, operations manager at Consumer Direct, is quoted as saying: "The current theatre boom means that more people than ever are going to watch shows, and with the West End alone staging over 50 productions during the summer months, it's not a surprise that the ticket scammers are out in force.
"These scammers are extremely sophisticated. The Just Tick it campaign wants to ensure that people buying tickets to events don't lose money and miss out. It's very easy to be tempted by cheap online offers or websites that say they have tickets to sold-out shows, but remember that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is."
The thing is, though (and if you'll excuse the play on words): I don't buy it. I have never come across a single theatregoer who has been sold a fake theatre ticket online and I've never heard from a single producer or theatre owner that it's a real problem. Certainly, I've heard of online scams for pop concerts, music festivals and sports events, but never for theatre.
I spoke to a ticket agent about this and he confirmed my suspicions. There just isn't the demand. As a fraudster, there's very little point in selling fake theatre tickets on the web because you can't sell them quickly at high enough prices, or in enough bulk, to turn a quick profit and disappear. Certainly not compared with other types of live event. After all, for most West End shows, it's not too hard to lay your hands on a ticket at some point in the run, whereas music concerts have much more limited engagements; and sporting events, of course, are one-offs.
That's not to say there aren't "scams" in theatre. It's just that, for the most part, they sail carefully on the right side of the law. It's not fraud, more sharp practice. There are the traditional touts who sell tickets at inflated prices or websites that offer expensive tickets you could find much cheaper elsewhere.
Very occasionally, when you do have a theatre event for which demand outstrips supply – say for David Tennant in Hamlet), you'll have online touts buying up tickets and selling them on at a huge profit. It's still not really a scam, though, just capitalism at work.
Perhaps more suspiciously – although again perfectly legally – there are the websites with addresses that make them sound like the official website of the theatre in which the show is taking place but are in fact ticket agents selling at marked-up prices. Somewhere in the small print at the bottom of the page, there will be a line making this clear.
Aside from that, I think, theatre is thankfully pretty scam-free, especially when compared with the music industry.
But then again, maybe I've been lucky. What have your experiences been? Is there a vast army of online theatre scammers out there – as the OFT appear to think – who have simply passed me by?
