On October 22, the topic #concert scalpers earned 1 million a month # was trending on Weibo, attracting the attention of netizens.
Tickets are "sold out" as soon as they are issued, but some people claim to be able to grab them at a high price and guarantee tickets are issued.
According to CCTV News, recently, the Procuratorate in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province announced a case of illegal online ticket grabbing. The clues to the case originated in April 2024. Zhenjiang police received reports from many consumers saying that it was difficult to get tickets on the official platform for a popular local upcoming concert, but there were people online who openly sold tickets at increased prices and guaranteed to get tickets.
The police conducted an in-depth investigation based on clues and finally identified Chen, the actual controller of the online store. Chen explained that at first she only entrusted scalpers to grab tickets, but as the demand for paid tickets gradually increased, she discovered business opportunities, so she teamed up with her boyfriend and others to develop software that could bypass the platform's reservation system and enter the ticket page to place orders directly to make profits.
In 18 months, they used plug-in software to invade the ticket purchasing platform and snapped up more than 20,000 concert tickets, making illegal profits of nearly 6 million yuan, sometimes nearly 1 million yuan in a month.
Under the attack, why are sky-high price scalpers repeatedly banned?
In recent years, the national performance market has continued to heat up, and it has almost become the norm for popular concerts to be sold out as soon as they open. Due to the imbalance between ticket supply and demand, the problem of scalpers hoarding tickets and speculating on tickets has frequently appeared, and many places have continued to carry out crackdowns.
According to Procuratorial Daily Zhengyi.com, the Procuratorate in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province recently reported a case of mass robbery of concert tickets on behalf of others and arrested five criminals. After investigation, the gang snapped up more than 60,000 performance tickets and made illegal profits of more than 16 million yuan;
According to CCTV news, in July this year, the Shanghai police uncovered multiple cases of purchasing concert tickets for a well-known group and arrested three criminals. Some of them charged service fees ranging from 800 to 1,500 yuan per ticket.
Why are sky-high price scalpers banned repeatedly?
In September 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Large-scale Commercial Performance Activities to Promote the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Performance Market", which clarified that the number of tickets sold by performance organizers to the market must not be less than 85% of the approved number of audiences. For the remaining 15% of tickets, personal information should be bound 24 hours before the performance to achieve "real-name binding and real-name admission."
According to the China Voice of China Radio and Television Station, Chen, the head of a performance agency, said that the so-called "recorded tickets" come from within 15% of the ticket sources, that is, non-public "internal tickets", which usually include cooperation tickets for sponsors and media, as well as some tickets for local distribution.
As for why scalper tickets can fetch sky-high prices? Some scalpers revealed that these premiums flowed into a reselling network formed by multiple layers of scalping agents.
Be careful when grabbing tickets! Four tips to teach you how to identify scalper and phishing websites
The first tip: Look at the website address and identify the official domain name
Be sure to check the website address carefully before purchasing tickets and beware of fake websites. When purchasing air tickets and concert tickets, you should stick to official channels or well-known large ticketing platforms.
The second trick: don’t believe in “pie in the sky”
"Low-price tickets", "Priority ticket issuance through internal channels", "100% chance of grabbing"... these promises should not be taken lightly. The more tempting the conditions are, the more vigilant you must be.
The third trick: Refuse to transfer funds privately
All formal ticket purchases are paid through the platform, funds are guaranteed, and transactions are traceable. Any request to transfer money directly to a personal account through instant messaging tools or bank cards is almost certainly a scam.
The fourth tip: Install security software and turn on risk warnings
It is recommended to install regular security software on your computer and mobile phone and turn on the "Safe Browsing" function of your browser to effectively identify and block phishing websites.
