Irish Christmas shoppers are being urged to take precautions amid a worrying rise in concert ticket scams in recent weeks, according to Revolut.
On Wednesday, the digital bank said its customers had reported a 27 per cent rise in the amount of money being lost to gig ticket fraud in the final two weeks of November compared with the first half of the month.
With big acts like Charli XCX and Oasis set to play Irish dates next year, Revolut said tickets are at the top of many shopping lists this Christmas and “scams may well be prevalent”.
“We know that for youngsters in particular, tickets for some of next year’s hottest concerts would make their Christmas,” said David Eborne, head of fraud operations at Revolut.
“However, these are naturally hard to come by, and we urge our customers to be cautious when on the hunt for gig tickets around this time of year.”
Urging shoppers to avoid panic buying tickets when doing last-minute shopping, Mr Eborne said scammers capitalise on people’s “fear of missing out” on big events.
Gig-goers or those looking to gift tickets should always use trusted sites to buy concert tickets and avoid unknown resellers who might be scammers in disguise, Revolut said.
Meanwhile, a survey of more than 1,000 Revolut users in the Republic revealed that more than a quarter of consumers expect to go over budget this Christmas. Some 10 per cent of respondents said they were considering taking out a loan to finance their Christmas spend.
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