A new, widespread concert ticket scam targeting UCL students in society group chats has been uncovered in an investigation by The Cheese Grater.
The scam messages advertised tickets to hotly anticipated gigs such as Sabrina Carpenter’s O2 concerts as well as other sold-out shows like Dave Chapelle & Killer Mike at the Apollo and Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball.
The scammers’ operation typically consisted of joining a group chat and immediately advertising tickets to an event.
The messages typically follow a similar format but the level of variation suggests these were different scammers trying their luck.
The Cheese Grater spoke to multiple UCL students who had reported seeing similar scam messages in recent weeks.
One member of the UCL Francophone Society told us they noticed these messages around the beginning of the academic year, but that they hadn’t recognised them as obvious scams.
Ticket scams in their group chat include all three of the aforementioned sold-out shows, including Dave Chapelle, Sabrina Carpenter, and Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball.
Other respondents to a poll on The Cheese Grater’s Instagram page suggest that the scam was widespread across UCL, with testimonies from the Indian Society, Musical Theatre Society, Tennis Society, Electronic Music Society, and Knitting Society.
We spoke to two scammers to find out more about how they operate so students can stay vigilant of their tactics.
Same tactics reported in Texas
The Cheese Grater reached out to an account named “~M~” after one student told us they nearly fell for the scam.
“~M~” had advertised tickets to the Sabrina Carpenter concert on at least three society group chats, including the 93% Club, Bangla Society, and Legal Tech Society.
“~M~” told us that they were selling four tickets for £100-200 despite claiming to have bought them at £450 each.
Unlike ticket scalpers who manipulate high-demand concerts for profit by reselling tickets at inflated prices, “~M~” appeared to have no intention of sending the tickets and would be making a high profit regardless of the price he sold them at.
“~M~” accepted our lowball offer of just £50 for one ticket on the condition that we send the money on PayPal via the “personal payment” option, which isn’t covered by PayPal’s scam protection policy.
When asked why they didn’t advertise their tickets on legitimate reselling sites like Viagogo where they could easily sell for at least £300, “~M~” replied that they “won’t take me seriously.”
The scammer added that they were not in fact a UCL student but their “friend [sic] sister” was, which was why they were advertising in UCL society group chats.
The Cheese Grater confirmed the scam when “~M~” shared “proof” of the ticket through a “view once” message on WhatsApp.
The message contained a clearly photoshopped confirmation email for a Sabrina Carpenter concert at the “02” in “London Greater”.
We found the same confirmation email on a Reddit thread posted two months ago, only with the location changed from Austin, Texas.
The Reddit screengrab even had the same time and battery percentage as the one provided by “~M~”, suggesting we could be dealing with a global scam operation.
“~M~” did not return our texts after we confronted them with these findings.
Nonetheless, “~M~” did not seem deterred by our investigation and his WhatsApp profile, which is a business account, remains active at the time of publication, suggesting they are still employing the same tactics targeting UCL students.
An organised operation
The Cheese Grater spoke to another suspected scammer, “Finn”, who was selling five Jingle Bell Ball tickets at £200 a piece.
Although “Finn” was only advertising tickets to the Jingle Bell Ball, we asked if they were also selling any tickets to the Sabrina Carpenter concert to see what lengths they would go to extort our cash.
Unsurprisingly, the “Finn” replied in the affirmative, adding that while they were selling the tickets for £200 a piece, they would be willing to sell for cheaper if we could not afford the advertised price.
“Finn” produced an email confirmation and a screenshot of the ticket portal to demonstrate the supposed authenticity of the five Sabrina Carpenter tickets they were selling, neither of which actually proved the tickets to be authentic.
By way of reassurance, “Finn” claimed they had acquired the Sabrina Carpenter tickets from a “colleague” and that they personally only had the Jingle Bell Ball tickets.
Upon closer inspection, however, the email confirmation they had sent as evidence of authenticity was actually under their screen name, “Finn”.
Overnight, “Finn” changed WhatsApp accounts and messaged us on a new number, claiming there was a “problem” with their old account, suggesting it was likely banned or restricted.
“Finn” became increasingly frustrated that we would not be parting with our hard-earned cash for a fake Sabrina ticket, concluding with a final remark to stop wasting his time if we weren’t going to buy a ticket.
“Concerning number of reports”
The news comes as UCL’s cybersecurity chief issued a warning last week that the University had seen a “significant increase” in phone and social media scams in recent months.
It is apparent that scam networks are becoming more sophisticated and have moved beyond the essay-writing scams that many students would have been familiar with.
This is a worrying development as the new ticket scams are significantly harder to spot.
A spokesperson for the Students’ Union said: “This is very concerning, and students should be extra vigilant to scams which are becoming more sophisticated and personalised.
“Our Advice Service supports many students who have fallen victim to scams and works with UCL to raise the alarm to targeted groups.
“If you become aware of an IT security-related issue (i.e. a suspicious email to your university email account), you can contact ISD Security by emailing isg@ucl.ac.uk or calling +44 (0)20 7679 7338 (extension 37338 on a UCL landline).
“If you have become a victim of online fraud, please report this to the Police via Action Fraud on +44 (0)300 123 2040 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm) or via the Action Fraud website. If you require further support, our Advice Service is here to help.”
Shortly after the comment was given, the Union sent additional communications to society committee members on the “concerning number of reports about scams and fraudulent activity” in club and society WhatsApp groups.
Committee members were advised to invite members to group chats using their UCL email addresses where possible.
It added that societies should ensure that all members hold a taster membership as a minimum requirement to participate in society group chats.
The Cheese Grater has reached out to Meta for a comment.
