Getty ImagesThousands of young people in the UK were tricked into paying money for non-existent Premier League football tickets last season, according to an estimate by Lloyds Bank.
It said that football ticketing fraud against its customers was up by around a third compared with the previous season, and warned fans to be on their guard.
Banking industry group UK Finance said that tickets sell out quickly, and criminals can take advantage of people looking for offers.
It urged social media firms to take more action to stop fraud, and asked customers to be vigilant.
About 6,000 UK football fans fell victim to fraud last season, Lloyds Bank estimated.
It analysed its own fraud figures, and made the estimate about fraud suffered by customers of all banks based on Lloyd’s market share – it has about a fifth of UK current accounts.
That means at least 1,200 Lloyd’s customers were scammed last season.
More than half of the people getting scammed were between 18 and 34 years old.
Its customers lost £177 on average, but for some people it was more than £1,000.
Criminals were most likely to target fans of the biggest teams, and supporters of Arsenal and Liverpool fell victim most often.
About 56% of the scams started on Facebook Marketplace, and a further 26% began on X (formerly Twitter).
Earlier this year Lloyds Bank estimated that Taylor Swift fans lost more than £1m to ticket scammers ahead of her UK tour.
How did the scams work?
Criminals create fake posts on social media or online marketplaces to advertise tickets that do not exist, often with pictures of real tickets to convince the buyer they’re genuine.
The victim is then tricked into making a payment, usually by bank transfer.
Once the money has been transferred, the fraudster just disappears, and the victim gets nothing in return.
The problem with bank transfers is they are not designed for online transactions, so it is more difficult to get your money back once it has gone.
The banks can pay victims back, but the transactions don’t have the same protections as buying something with a bank card, for example.
What can fans do?
Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said “missing out on the big match after falling victim to a ticket scam can be devastating”.
She advised fans to stick to official ticketing channels and to avoid deals that look too good to be true.
UK Finance said fans should stop and think before parting with any money.
It said it was fine to refuse requests, and fraudsters will probably try to rush you or panic you into making a decision.
You get extra protection if you use a credit card to make a purchase between £100 and £30,000.
Premier League advises fans to buy directly from clubs or authorised ticket partners.
A spokesperson for the banking industry body said that last year customers lost nearly £86m to so-called “purchase scams”, with nine out of ten scams starting online.
“Tech and social media companies need to step up and tackle the criminality which is taking place on their platforms and contribute to cost of reimbursing victims,” the spokesperson said.
Facebook owner Meta and X were contacted for comment.