Fresh calls for criminal investigation as innocent Scots linked to illegal ‘spec’ tickets on Viagogo promotion site

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Tout Viagogo is facing new calls for a criminal investigation after the Daily Record discovered it was listing millions of pounds of illegal “spec” tickets.

Our recent site investigation found that a handful of shadowy traders on the secondary sales site are behind as much as 80 percent of all tickets listed for many of the big shows.

We can reveal that tickets are listed as a guess by anonymous, untraceable sellers who did not purchase from a primary seller.

Selling specs is a scam and could result in a prison sentence. Fraudulent listings represent anywhere from £2 million to £4 million on any given day.

Our investigation took us to the doorstep of a retired couple’s bungalow in Dundee, the supposed nerve center of a massive promotion vendor in Viagogo, HE Events.

The suspicious seller registered tickets worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in the United Kingdom, the United States, Asia and Australia.

But the homeowner on quiet Balgray Street confirmed that no tickets were sold from that address – and the unsuspecting pensioner had no idea using his home address to sell nonexistent tickets.

He said, “I’ve never heard of Viagogo and I’ve never heard of HE Events. I never had any messages about them.

Screenshots show how HE Events sells a lot of tickets. Other takeovers show how HE Events changed names to SFAD Events after we reported a spec sale.

“I am angry that our address has been used in this way and I intend to call the police.”

After the allegations were submitted to Viagogo, the ticket groups listed by HE Events were mysteriously transferred to an entirely new seller entity on the platform, SFAD Events.

But the new seller’s address was a PO Box in Lever Street, Manchester, which we discovered was another fake address – which means more fraudulent listings.

Activist Adam Webb of lobby group FanFair Alliance has held several meetings with the industry watchdog and the Competition and Markets Authority to demand action over the fake ticket scandal.

Until today, the CMA has not said or done anything about selling to spec, which could lead to higher prices in the secondary market.

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Webb said: “We have believed for some time that a large number of Viagogo listings are fraudulent. Either the tickets that are advertised have not been purchased or the sellers are hiding their real identities with fake names and addresses.

“The daily record now sheds more light on the sheer scale of these shady practices.

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“It is somewhat unlikely that the occupants of this modest home in Dundee will be the beating heart of the multi-million pound international ticket resale business, which stretches from the UK to New Zealand. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We can document HE events on expensive tickets up to the time gigs occur, which could result in a huge loss if purchased.”

After Webb witnessed the transfer of HE Events tickets to the identity of a new trader on Viagogo, he added, “Viagogo’s response to the allegations was laughable. They simply allowed these fictitious suppliers to change their identities and start using other fictitious addresses.”

“It’s very rude. Ticket listings have not been removed, no penalties have been taken.

“It is long overdue for a thorough and comprehensive criminal investigation into the activity on this website now.”

The UK’s chief ticket investigator, Reg Walker, of Iridium Consultancy, has also called for a criminal investigation.

The browser often uses a site like Viagogo to whip up tickets at a big profit, and then tries to figure out how to get them to fulfill the order.

He said: What we have here is selling properties on an industrial scale. Tickets are designed to sit on the site and not sell.

“If we examine tickets listed by HE Events and others closely, we can see that events come and go without any tickets being sold, which could result in any seller incurring huge losses if, in fact, they did the tickets.

“I’ve made test purchases that prove that tickets were never bought in the first place and I have information from several primary vendors that conclusively prove that tickets were never bought from these highly suspicious dealers.”

Walker said the CMA should take immediate steps to find out who is behind identities like HE Events, Sofia Wagner and another big seller, Ticketing Expert Ltd.

He said: “He talks a lot about people in Dundee having nothing to do with HE Events or Viagogo.

“Viagogo must know exactly who is listing these tickets. They have systems in place to improve sales.

“However, they are allowing thousands of tickets to remain on their site despite being listed illegally, speculatively, and priced in a way that they could never be expected to sell.”

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Walker added: “In order to stop the supposed sale, Viagogo is asking sellers to tick a box to say they have tickets. What criminal wouldn’t tick that box?”

“The sad thing for consumers is that the high prices of HE Events and Sofia Wagner make customers think that cheaper tickets are a big deal, when in fact they are a robbery, distorting and inflating the market.”

Viagogo said it “strictly adheres to” CMA guidelines and is subject to an annual external review of its business.

Her spokesman said an investigation was launched after they were presented with the registry’s allegations. He added, “We subsequently blocked the relevant sellers until they provided proof of address, at which point they will be unblocked provided all information is compliant.”

The spokesperson said that no Viagogo employees were involved in commercial activity on the site.

Peter Hunter and David Smith were jailed in 2020 after being convicted of four counts of fraud, including one related to speculative selling.

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