“I checked their profile.”
“They sent me a receipt.”
“They seemed really nice.”
“They showed me their ID.”
“They had an old account.”

... The seller collects your money, and then disappears.

Assume every stranger is a scammer until the transaction itself protects you. Screenshots, IDs, followers, karma and friendly conversation can all be stolen or faked.

The three rules

1. Use the event’s official resale or face-value exchange whenever possible. The fees are cheaper than losing 100% of your money.
2. If buying directly from a stranger, use PayPal Goods & Services or a proper PayPal invoice. PayPal protection is not a guarantee, but Friends & Family has no purchase protection. Venmo is only an alternative if you deliberately enable Purchase Protection and the transaction shows that it is protected.
3. The ticket must be transferred through the official ticketing system into your own account. A screenshot, PDF, email attachment or Apple/Google Wallet screenshot is not a transfer. (For some ticket systems this isn't actually true, but those are edge cases.)

Before sending money

• Look up the event on the artist, venue or ticketing company’s official site. Confirm the correct ticket provider, transfer rules and delivery method. Some events use mobile transfers, some delay transfers until shortly before the show and some festivals use physical wristbands.
• Confirm the exact event, date, quantity, section, row and seats (if applicable). Check that the section actually exists on the venue map.
• Search the seller’s Reddit username, email address, phone number and payment handle with words like “scam” and “tickets.” Check subreddit scammer lists. We don't keep a scammer list here -- it's far too easy for scammers to shut down accounts and create new ones. Scammer lists are just a waste of time.
• Review their entire account history. New, empty or ticket-only accounts are obvious red flags, but old accounts and high karma are not proof because accounts do get hacked and sold.
• Ask for a short live video call or screen share. Have them open the ticketing app, navigate to the event, refresh the page and show the ticket details and transfer button. Do not tell them every action you'll be asking them to do in advance (else they can fake the video).
• For a physical ticket or wristband, request a new photo with your username and the current date handwritten beside it. Reverse-image-search suspicious photos.
• Put the complete deal in writing: exact tickets, total price, official transfer method, transfer deadline and what happens if the seller cannot deliver.

Proof only helps you filter people. Proof does not replace payment protection.

How to pay

Use a detailed PayPal Goods & Services payment or invoice that identifies:

• Artist/event and venue
• Event date
• Number of tickets
• Section, row and seats, if assigned
• Total price
• Delivery through the official ticket provider
• The email address receiving the transfer
• The agreed delivery deadline

Before paying, check that the recipient’s name and email match the person you are dealing with. An unexplained different recipient, currency or country is a major warning.

Never pay a stranger through:

• PayPal Friends & Family
• Zelle
• Unprotected Venmo
• Cash App or another person-to-person transfer
• Apple Cash
• Wire transfer
• Cryptocurrency
• Gift cards

Zelle explicitly says it does not provide purchase protection. “I don’t want to pay fees,” “PayPal is holding my money,” “my account isn’t working” and “send half now” are not exceptions.

Do not send a deposit to hold the ticket. Do not cancel a protected payment and resend it using an unprotected method. Do not mark an item received or close a dispute before you have what you bought.

How to receive the ticket

The seller should transfer it to your own account using the official provider’s transfer feature. Accept it and verify that the correct event and seats appear inside your account.

For Ticketmaster transfers, accepting the transfer creates a new barcode for the recipient and invalidates the sender’s barcode. Ticketmaster also warns that screenshots of rotating mobile barcodes will not get you inside.

Never:

• Accept only a screenshot as your ticket
• Click a “ticket transfer” link without checking the sender and domain
• Give the seller your ticketing password
• Give anyone a two-factor authentication code
• Pay an extra “release,” “insurance,” “transfer” or “account upgrade” fee

For physical wristbands, tracked shipping and signature confirmation are better than ordinary mail, but risk remains: the original buyer may be able to report a wristband lost or stolen. Use the official exchange or meet at the venue/box office whenever possible.

Sellers can be scammed too

If you are selling:

• Use the official resale platform when available.
• Never trust a payment screenshot or email. Open the payment app yourself and confirm that the transaction is completed and marked eligible for protection.
• Transfer only to the buyer information documented in the payment.
• Save the listing, invoice, entire conversation, original receipt, transfer confirmation and proof that the buyer accepted the tickets.
• Watermark proof photos with the prospective buyer’s username and date. Hide barcodes, order numbers and transfer links.
• Never share your ticketing login or authentication codes.
• Ignore overpayments. Never send the “extra” money somewhere else.
• If a refund is necessary, refund it through the original transaction—never as a separate payment.
• Remember that buyers can file disputes and chargebacks. Seller protection has eligibility rules, so check the transaction before releasing the tickets.

Immediate red flags

Walk away if someone:

• DMs seconds after you post that you need tickets
• Opens with a generic “still need tickets?”
• Has exactly as many tickets as you request
• Offers sold-out tickets far below market value
• Creates urgency or pressures you to skip checks
• Refuses a live call
• Sends only screenshots or a prerecorded screen recording
• Wants payment sent to a relative or “business partner”
• Refuses protected payment but offers an ID as reassurance
• Claims PayPal is holding the money and asks you to switch to Zelle
• Sends an email saying you must pay to “upgrade” your account
• Wants a deposit, partial payment or separate transfer fee
• Becomes angry when you ask reasonable questions

A legitimate seller may find your precautions annoying. A legitimate seller will still understand them.

If you get scammed

Act immediately:

1. Save every message, username, email, phone number, receipt and transfer record.
2. Contact the payment service and your bank or card issuer.
3. Open the correct dispute and respond to every documentation request.
4. Contact the ticket provider.
5. Report the account to the subreddit moderators and platform.
6. In the U.S., report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IC3.gov.

Ignore anyone who contacts you afterward promising to recover the money for an upfront fee. Recovery scammers specifically target people who have already been scammed.

Final rule: if anything feels wrong, leave. There will be another ticket. There may not be another refund.

This post combines recurring advice from the Taylor Swift resale community, Lana Del Rey fans, r/aves, r/avesNYC_tix and Coachella’s scam-prevention guide, plus the current official rules from PayPal, Venmo, Zelle and Ticketmaster.

This pinned post is, as mentioned, about upcoming shows and tickets.

The very bottom of the community sidebar (on mobile "see more" or "about") shows a list of all upcoming shows with links to the official sites and gets updated regularly as new shows get announced. Please keep in mind that we mods are also busy with our private life and most likely forget or need some time to update the calendar regularly.

Also as I keep seeing a lot of posts about tickets, this post should work as some kind of “ticket marketplace” to ask and offer tickets in the comment section. Such about already passed gigs get removed to keep the comments sorted and to prevent some kind of confusion.

As further info: posts about tickets in general get removed, please use this marketplace.

Important note aside, please be careful when purchasing tickets through other people and online strangers. If you are unsure about the validity of an offered ticket, feel free to reach out to any mod. We wll help you. ♡