Music fans were this week warned of an explosion in the number of fraudulent gig ticket websites, with fears growing that the number of people likely to be ripped off this year may well exceed the estimated 30,000 people fleeced in 2008.
Guardian Money can reveal that some of the sites offering tickets to events such as this year's Reading, Leeds and V Festivals are identical to scam websites that left many people out of pocket last year - yet the authorities seem powerless to act. When the authorities succeed in getting sites shut down, the fraudsters behind them often simply move elsewhere and relaunch with slightly different names. Coldplaylivetickets.net is one such site: apparently also part of Mr Perez's Panamanian empire, and previously traded as Coldplaylivetickets.com. Coldplayworldtour.com is another site that has caused major ticket problems according to user reviews.
It is important to note that the main official sites to but tickets from are the Ticketmaster franchise, Seetickets/Gigsandtours.com (UK) and LiveNation (US) - with or without TicketRush. The full article (essential reading) is at the Coldplay Live forum here [thanks Jenjie]
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