Oasis fans lost more than £2m to ticket scams, major bank warns | Ents & Arts News

Oasis fans collectively lost more than £2m to ticket scams for the band’s long-awaited reunion tour, a major bank has warned.

The UK group announced the tour last year, with it set to begin in just over two months time.

However, amid the rush for tickets, Lloyds Banking Group said a number of customers fell victim to ticket scams, losing £436 on average.

The bank made the calculations based on fraud reports from its own customers.

Would-be concertgoers trying to get their hands on the tickets already faced issues around dynamic pricing.

And Oasis fans accounted for more than half of all reported ticket scams so far this year, Lloyds added.

The biggest amount lost was said to be £1,700, with people aged between 35 and 44 most likely to be scammed.

Edinburgh, Warrington and Manchester had the highest numbers of scam victims, with the top 10 locations overall making up a quarter of cases, the banking group said.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds, said: “The Oasis tour is the latest target for ticket scammers, with millions of pounds of fans’ money stolen before the gigs even kick off.

“If you’re asked to pay via bank transfer, particularly by a seller you’ve found on social media, that should immediately set alarm bells ringing.”

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Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which? said: “Scammers are always looking for new ways to part people from their hard-earned cash and unfortunately, Oasis tickets being in such high demand has created a perfect storm for criminals.”

Here are the top 10 areas where the reported scam victims lived, according to Lloyds Banking Group:

1. Edinburgh
2. Warrington
3. Manchester
4. Newcastle upon Tyne
5. Sheffield
6. Glasgow
7. Nottingham
8. Birmingham
9. Plymouth
10. Newport