Ticketmaster says that more than 10,000 false claims were made from people attempting to access free tickets to this weekend’s concert in honour of those that died in the recent terrorist attack in Manchester.
Free tickets were offered to all 14,200 people who attended last week’s Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, where 22 people were killed.
However, Ticketmaster said 25,000 applications were made, with “opportunists or touts” trying to take advantage of its offer.
Ticketmaster said: “Sadly, over 10,000 unscrupulous applications have been made.
“At Ticketmaster we are doing everything we can – including extending today’s deadline – to ensure that tickets go to the actual fans and not the opportunists or touts who have also been applying for free tickets.”
As well as offering free tickets to those at the original concert, the company put around 35,000 further tickets on general sale on Thursday for £40 each. They sold out in less than 20 minutes.
While the UK’s four major resale sites are not allowing tickets for the event to be listed, it has been reported that eBay sellers are attempting to cash in on the event.
In one eBay posting, two standing tickets were offered for £400 with the seller asking for 65p to cover postage – the listing was posted at 10.44am, barely an hour after the tickets had gone on sale.
Another set of tickets were put online for sale, with four standing tickets advertised for £500 on eBay.
eBay has confirmed any ticket sales are automatically removed, saying a team was also performing “manual sweeps” to pick up the advertisements.
eBay said: “This is completely against eBay rules. We are immediately removing any listing which attempts to profit unfairly from what happened, and the sellers’ accounts will be restricted.”
Robbie Williams and Little Mix are among the latest major artists to the bill for One Love Manchester, joining Grande, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Usher and Coldplay.
Image: Drew de F Fawkes
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