Are Bots Buying Up Your Concert Tickets? | Talking Point | Full Episode

International music gigs have returned to Singapore after their pandemic hiatus. And it has become increasingly difficult to get a ticket to popular artists like Coldplay and Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, both locally and overseas, some people seem to have secretive ways to secure tickets and make money off reselling them. Talking Point investigates the difficulty in buying concert tickets, why scalping remains a major problem in concert ticket sales, and how you can snare tickets to your next gig.
00:00 Introduction
04:37 Ticket scalper on how he buys hundreds of tickets fast
07:01 Which method of buying tickets worked?
10:32 How bypass links work
14:41 How ticketing platforms fight against bots
17:06 Better way to buy tickets?
About the show:
Talking Point investigates a current issue or event, offering different perspectives to local stories and revealing how it all affects you.
================================================
#CNAInsider #CNATalkingPoint #ConcertTickets
For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER!
cna.asia/insideryoutubesub
Follow CNA INSIDER on:
Instagram: / cnainsider
Facebook: / cnainsider
Website: cna.asia/cnainsider

[@st6517]

The scalper is right by saying , "Ticketmaster don't care who buys as long as it's sold out"

[@annew5380]

ya, as long as he is notthe end buyer, he doesn't carewhat he's doing. Why doesn't he show his face then?

[@artaizen1613]

he online store making the "flash sale" but honestly for me 100% of the time it will be sold out like in 1 nanosecond or something. and there's always that product that is never sold just sitting there cause honestly people rarely want that item. or the discount is not interesting enough.

[@NazriB]

Lies again? American Education Miami Jurong

[@MrNamesNoMore]

Singapore need to follow Japan's example. Each registered local phone number can only buy up to 4 tickets. And need a local credit card as well, which makes ticket scalpers life harder.

[@repulse_]

Big point of concerts in sg is to attract tourists so that will never happen

[@theachilles96]

People can buy local phone numbers. People can use foreign workers to buy phone numbers for them. That's why scammers exist in Singapore. We can use NRIC to book, but the main point of these concerts is to attract tourists and money.

[@lucretius8050]

There is an anti scalping law in Japan enacted 2019.

[@ladyofhalos]

Korea does it well too. For the extremely high demand concerts in South Korea, they check your (1) passport / ID name (2) Ticket Name and (3) [If you bought at presales] official fanclubs presale account name. They do this at the concert venue. We need legislation for this. Relying on TicketMaster or LiveNation (they had a recent merger) to end scalping is ridiculous, they EARN money from their own "secondary marketplace". They get commissions off the original transaction and then the secondary transaction on their "official resale platform / resale partner". It's unethical af. ID verification checks will stop the bots entirely. If people want to commit passport fraud for a concert, then they will bear the risk of jail for it. If singapore wants to become a top concert destination in the region, then it must solve these problems decisively.

[@MrNamesNoMore]

@@repulse_ There are other solutions Japan have if restricting it to locals is not a solution. Such as name checking the tickets with an identification document in venue, sure it will slow down the entry, but it will kill the possibility of scalpers scalping. Also note that this is not enforce on every venue, only venues where the tickets sold like hotcakes. So for events where the tickets are not hotcakes, people can still enter per normal. They do this by having all concert organizers to demand for a name before a ticket can be bought, and said name will be printed on ticket. So transferring of ticket to another person is difficult for venues where name checking is mandatory. In addition, their smart tickets, basically E-Tickets are device locked, so the device used to purchase the ticket can be the only device used to enter the venue. Sure it will cause some issues if the user wants to change device etc, but they have a system in place that we can just copy. But at the end of it all, Japan has put in place many system designed to make ticket scalpers and buyers of scalped tickets life superrrr difficult. To the extent that it is just not worth it anymore. It also helps Japan has an anti scalping law. If we have such systems in place, it will probably allow foreigners to purchase tickets at a more reasonable price without scalpers in the picture. Then that would still achieve our goal and perhaps further improve our reputation for having an organized system.

[@holnivek]

This has been an issue for years. Nothing will change unless event organizers stop selling their tickets through platforms like Ticketmaster.

[@Veralidainai]

Better said then done, event organizers HAVE tried stopped using Ticketmaster but they got blowback from TM

[@Daniel_0778]

Just sell the ticket offline it will stop those stupid scalper..

[@jhow8990]

Why should they stop it. They have publicity to show that the singer sells their tickets within 30min. It is advantage to them. The only way to stop them is for audience not to buy from 2nd seller, which is near impossible. I mean if they want to stop all this, they should just link concert tickets with IC/passport number. But they is no reason/advantage for them to stop this.

[@user-fm9to3zw8c]

Ticketmaster will not let this blockchian system exist. Ticket Master IS the scalper. Do your research.

[@Shahrulschaferr]

What the scalper said about event organisers wanting to sell out their tickets and nothing else sounds about right. If they didn’t have this mentality, they would have already tapped on Singpass usage. Event orgs also want their money, and fast.

[@tinachan7013]

I think some countries tie the ticket purchase to the ID (IC, passport no, etc), so only the person who bought the ticket can attend the event, you can only cancel your purchase and not resale it.

[@repulse_]

Unrealistic to check every single person before letting them into the venue. Some of the venues hold 50k+. There is no incentive for the venue operators to do so.

[@Jane306]

​@@repulse_it is realistic if the system has a face recognition system. Staff can scan fast enough n if the face match mean the attendees r the ones who purchased. But it's gonna be a HUGE investment for this...

[@repulse_]

@@Jane306 again no incentive for venue operators.. need to deploy extra manpower at every entrance, might impact concert start timings because of the crowd. The easiest way is to just have tickets be untransferable & tickets that refresh constantly (it's already implemented in many countries). This will impact sales though since tourists are less likely to buy if they can't transfer. It's a difficult situation with no clear solution.

[@cuclainne]

I often buy concert tickets for my teens, and I don't attend them myself. By tying the tickets to my ID, it makes it difficult for my teens to go on their own.

[@Annahoneybee93]

Scalpers still able to transfer tickets to your account. It seems like impossible to win the bots unless you create a bot yourself and try to compete with the scalpers.

[@simbeekuan4056]

I think they have to come up with a way to control these people who buys huge number of tickets just so that they can profit from it.

[@clementperdana290]

No one buys a huge number of tickets. At least the system doesn't see it that way. They buy a few tickets, but many times. So it's like you ask a lot of your friends to buy on your behalf. They will look like part of the crowds, nothing outstanding.

[@yongquanwu3921]

Ticketmaster platform sucks, As you can see from this video the regular queue buyer has met with several errors confirming tickets. I had my fair share of horrors buying from ticketmaster where the seats are assign based on "their best pick" instead of free to choose. The best pick turns out to be a simple left to right assignment. Sistic platform is way better. Tickmaster is being probe by US congress over the backlash of Taylor Swift concert and the singer herself is expressing dissappointment. Why are we letting our country run by overseas ticketing platform ? Let singapore ticketing companies do it,

[@cuclainne]

Yes, sistic platform is much easier to select seats. But Live Nation only uses Ticketmaster platform so we have no choice.

[@francisyuweh706]

thank you for this very informative episode, looking forward for more! keep it up

[@kushalraj]

Klook did a good job for Taylor Swifts tickets. Good to see one more company join in and compete for selling tickets to popular events.

[@SaaSLTDDeals]

Ticket scalpers and bots have been a persistent problem, making it difficult for genuine fans to purchase tickets at face value.

[@yen-8680]

Ticketmaster is the scalpers’s master.

[@lucyfiniarel2347]

Please la. Taylor Swift doesn't need scalpers to sell out, she would have sold out anyway. This reasoning from the scalper to justify that his value is "helping concerts sell out" is total bullshit.

[@MED-fe1qt]

Singapore is a small country. Can’t they make it compulsory for people to buy the tickets in person at official outlets? Like before we had online sales or booking systems? Overseas attendees could buy the tics online, but they would have to collect the tickets physically using official ID. Really. If they really wanted to sell tics properly, they would. Like the scalper said: They don’t care. They just want to make ticket sales

[@yongquanwu3921]

Everyone buying from singpost should have priority tickets, at least for the first day.

[@cuclainne]

You do realise that as a country with kiasu citizens, how many people will be staying over overnight to queue? Even with all the post offices, I don't think they can cope with having thousands of people queue up at each post office.

[@Daniel_0778]

It will not only be Singaporean, Malaysian must go there too..That how it work here, when concert in malaysia, Singaporean also will joined them🤷‍♂️… it only 1 km form malaysia to singapore tho🤷‍♂️

[@goldengirl1212]

it should not be so difficult and complicated to get tickets. this is ridiculous. i use to just go to the box office back in london to get a ticket, and that was it, and it never cost me an arm and a leg to get a ticket...

[@koruspring1519]

If you think its not immoral, show your face.

[@manofthehour_]

What a complete dirtbag that guy was.

[@MrLittleSmall3]

ya, he sounds so proud being a scalper. it's annoying

[@ChibiKeruchan]

if it is immoral.. that's on the grey area. immorality is always base from human culture. illegal? that too is in the grey area. (I don't think there is a LAW saying buying several ticket using different account is illegal) note that company Policy "ARE NOT LAW". so if the company says you are not allowed to buy multiple tickets and even tried their best to develop a system in which they detect your IP address to null your purchase. it is still by law not illegal to purchase since it was not a law but just a policy. 😂😂 So yeah these are just people who we call them as "opportunist". For me, I do not care about what they are doing. since the people who these kind of thing are taking advantage of are people under the Consumer group. (people are are being eaten by Consumerism) for me. they deserve to lose more money. that's what their demographic are for anyway. they fuel the economy by purchasing what they "Want in life and make them happy". the more they spent the more the economy keep going. 😂😂😂😂

[@carlisclosetedphgt3666]

@@ChibiKeruchan ok scalper, seethe

[@Mew77778]

Hope everyone will stop buying tickets from scalpers

[@jman2413]

create account only based on NRIC/passport no. so it will reduce the number of accounts floating

[@stepness1245]

Singpass

[@bobbyyyyy4626]

should check if these bots are used for HDB open booking, since open booking is first come first serve system too

[@wekaypoh]

4:15 Scalpers emerge "swiftly" indeed

[@meat_loves_wasabi]

Was lucky enough to attend her 1989 & Reputation tours here…The good old days

[@thebrightfen]

Reputation? She didn't have Reputation tour in Singapore.

[@autumntriesthings]

Wishing bad karma to scalpers - the gov't should also strengthen anti-scalping laws!

[@thebrightfen]

The problem is that we do not have anti-scalping laws in the first place.

[@munster1404]

When you can’t beat them, join them. These so called “bots” can be purchased. People from all ages use these bots for online bidding. There are literally side hustles revolving the usage of such “bots”.

[@RayMak]

It’s sad… now we can’t even buy tickets properly nowadays

[@thinking8736]

why not say we off the internet? lmao

[@carlisclosetedphgt3666]

says the guy who's 99% of subscribers are bots 🙄🙄

[@pikachuthunderbolt3919]

People took sold out thing very seriously

[@RonLarhz]

Not only tickets. Anything limited edition will have this problem. Pokemon,shoes,iphone etc ....

[@TheDarkHarper]

You must understand that Taylor Swift is stopping over only in Singapore, factoring in how rare this kind of ocassion reallyis and I have friends around the region - Msia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand - who are willing to plan vacations around the concert, it's a simple question of demand way outweight supply and fans are willing to buy for it due to the perceptiion that it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Yes, it is not fair to queue against bots and many people will feel cheated, but do mind that in the end, some people are willling to fork out something way above the retail price if it makes them happy.

[@Astri-ez9wx]

that is always happened in Indonesia. I two times failed to hunt a rock band ticket. and also to other concerts. The management of ticketing said they didn't accept someone buying tickets more than what they maximally offer and they said one ticket will be one ID. But that is bulls*hit. Even when you log on to the official web, not more than 5 minutes, all the tickets will be sold! But I really never want to buy from Scalpers.. never..

[@SkitHertz]

Hope I live to see the day this problem goes away

[@darkwing.17]

Botnets are a cancer. We already have this kind of problem with shoes - people using botnets to buy all the stock so they can post them on StockX or similar.

[@lucasyeah7033]

CPIB should investigate ticketmaster processes, they are inviting more scammers in their processes. No wonder singaporeans are milked in such events for their money simply because we are a rich country.

[@bananaman22]

what a bastard and sad that the authorities dont catch them

[@CyberMew]

funny how captions are added for guests but none for hosts

[@jiaren68]

Same for the booking of badminton courts. Can you please do an episode about this?

[@InsideTodayTech]

Getting tickets for anything isn't easy anymore. Its time to learn scripting, blockchain and coding to get ahead of everyone.

[@tuapuikia]

Selenium + python script 😊😊😊😊 The only way to stop scalper is adding complicated captcha like which dog are smiling and etc.😊😊😊

[@rendyyahya2695]

bots in indonesia is way more brutal, i join my queue for coldplay in singapore & i can say its much more forgiving.

[@thebrightfen]

Tbh, bots helped a lot. It pushes the queue number to the front. I regretted not getting bot.

[@54hex]

But tickets can be voided if they are found using a bot to obtain it. kind of a risky move, some people got caught. You won’t know if the ticket has been voided or not until the day of the concert 😢

[@hendricahyana]

Blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana can easily solve this. With a smart contract, an event organizer can create a whitelist of eligible ticket buyers and determine whether the tickets are resellable or not. The data is stored on a public ledger, so you can access it from any device. No one else can use the ticket but you. All you have to do is not to lose the key. Not your key, not your ticket.

[@tankman20064]

Let go the old fashion way😂😂😂😂😂

[@parasher212]

Pop stars become famous more through hype, quick ticket sell out gives them the hype creating more demand, ticketing companies and sponsors give them better offers with increased prices and gives ticket sellers more certainty. So I think nobody in this chain cares how tickets are sold as quick sell out benefits them.

[@aaraonhon]

Be no.1 in the SingPost Queue and quit when at no.13

[@asuranrocks]

scalpers emerge 'swiftly' 😂

[@MrNamesNoMore]

Luckily my music taste is not mainstream. Can buy tickets to the concerts I want quite easily.

[@morganaluthor]

supply and demand.. many local sellers eg. game sellers, up their product prices by a lot since customers will still feed scalpers but personally i do not support them and will only buy from sellers if they are selling at a decent price.

[@-jfo-]

Feel so much sympathy for these young kids. Asian countries in general have placed too much focus on university qualifications instead of encouraging younger people to learn vocational trade skills like plumbing, electrical, auto mechanics qualifications etc. Such jobs pay well and provide a lot of flexibility. Ever seen what tradespeople charge for their services?

[@natureson4026]

For that last Blockchain ticketing, why would you still let reseller get profit of $100/ticket if it's a fully controlled platform??? ALL resell tickets should be only selling at Original price or lower than original price..any pricing above original price is still profitable consider that the scalpers just using bots to snatch tickets..

[@nigelchung86]

Then for once we should do a “game stop” similar incident. All gang up dun go.for one time

[@contrarian2496]

Crime always goes where the money is, so long as there's money to be made there'll be crime syndication.

[@allythearts5439]

I never purchased a concert ticket before 😂 but I did work for a concert ticketing company ....😅

[@Hi-rq8xn]

ill use it for gidle concert

[@koruspring1519]

The so called bot are actually tools used for automated UI testing 😢

[@drk3249]

yeah it's like similar to web scraping right, basically programmatically do something on the web, is there a formal name for this type of automation tool?

[@williamwong8424]

there's selenium, uipath, kofax etc@@drk3249

[@Mrhappynsad]

@@drk3249RPA (Robotic Process Automation). I did this for a bank not to buy tickets but for their own site. the mouse and everything moves on its own in a VM.

[@bertlander]

RPA

[@Hitlah_Fly]

we should make a law against scalping

[@ronnielee1023]

Genuis! They block me out as a bot. I m a genuine buyer.!

[@kkcc553]

All these concerts, look at the sponsorship. It is STB, MBS, Klook etc. Do you think there was no money or incentive being paid out or laid out to get Taylor Swift and Coldplay in when rest of SEA or even Asia hardly have a concert? Where is the Return on Invesment (ROI)? STB needs more tourism dollars, that is their ROI. So actually, they could be secretly happy with this bot issue. More overseas fans buy these resold tickets, more hotels get booked here in SG, more tourism dollars get spent here. Boost ROI. Versus a local spending only on the ticket, the end, no tourism dollars. Hence there is 0 incentive for the laws to be implemented to prevent such bots and scalping. When there is a will, there is a way. When there is no will, there is no way.

[@Solkarnar]

Need so troublesome meh? You just need the credit card that you used to buy the tickets on entry. Scan tickets, scan credit card, in you go. No credit card? No entry.

[@adavirus69]

Rent a crane, and watch the concert from the parking lot if you can’t buy tickets

[@fox_foo]

Link w Singpass, problem solved.

[@xihua12370]

Nah, Ticketmaster and even the music artist need the presence of scalpers to be able to sell a portion of the tickets at the "scalper" price. So the idea of having block chain ticketing will damage their bottom line... so even many years later, it will be the same as it is now 😂

[@HelloWorld-pc3ku]

Ticket master system is trash

[@limwanpeng3609]

isnt the host the guy that had beef with jack neo?

[@LianJim]

About the bypass link, as a seasoned developer, I can surely confirm this is designed to sell as bypass link and not for any other purpose 😂 by insider job

[@flowertowerrr]

That's why we can't have nice things

[@Jane306]

I found sistic has a better regulation.

[@meloveultraman]

Lol Bbdc students are alr fighting bots to book lessons.

[@Jayson619]

Scalpers have forfeited their rights to live!

[@adamtay-zp2bx]

All this only applies when only you know how the website function. If you can get first hand data on how the website function in the first place, you might as well just buy it underhand from the organiser.

[@kwangc6720]

Has anyone every wondered that Ticketmaster is the scalper themselves? No surprise why they refuse to respond to an interview. Obviously, they cannot even be bothered to find a good solution to the problem. I won't be further surprised if the SG govt has a share of Ticketmaster, if you know what I mean. I thought SG always prides itself in a "Clean" status? I thought we are so proud of our digital technology here? This scalping problem has been happening for so many years. Why has such a scam not even been removed or at least minimised?

[@hasifmail91]

Business is simple, demand and supply, just like your homes, luxury watches. If you made coffee at home its less than 10 cents but if you purchase coffee outside its 1 dollar to 5 dollars, people willingly paid for it. At the end of the day, it is about how badly you want it. Don't complain, life is never fair, deal with it.

[@liewsoonhao4643]

I have heard one of my colleagues' insider perspective. He and his friends went to an Internet cafe to buy the Taylor Swift tickets in bulk because Internet cafe has the fastest bandwidth. And they all made a pact that they should never re sell these tickets to family friends, colleagues. Ngl, he and his friends made friggin lots of money off reselling these tickets to strangers, much to the ire of us colleagues

[@mediahost2243]

$5k insane for concert. Anyways I guess CNA (govt funded) is paying for it😂

[@muhammadhairilibnsamad7781]

The problem also lies on too many foreigners snap up the tickets leaving Singaporeans no tickets to buy! Just like Twice concert, group queuing infront of me and back are from China and Taiwan. We ask them how they manage to get the tix, they told us that their friends got it for them. Can these organizers make it a prioritize/presale for Singaporeans by putting up Singpass or something? Oh wait. Organizers only has "wants to make money mindset" and "its just business". pfft.

[@starman1994]

Fat chance beating millions of bots.

[@ignatiusgoh2168]

Shrey bhargava host/actor third rail

[@MichaelJackson_lisaBP]

LOL Lucky I got the Access Code 😂 For Taylor swift concert I got VIP 🥳 Access actually your Phone number LOL

[@gadenp81]

By the nature of concerts that have high quality music without additional noise pollution, I do not foresee the need to queue in these crazy queues. Really just want to listen to the highest fidelity of an artist and nothing else.

[@thinking8736]

this is free mkt economics haha

[@tankman20064]

Go back to line-up tickets 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@monkeybusiness2204]

Blockchain is a stupid idea. How do you restrict people from say paying cash in addition to online payment?

[@nobodythere94]

that scalper ain't wrong tho, ticketmaster just wanna sell their tickets and nothing more. and that just proves how he can manipulate this "system". ppl want money + tickets selling fast so that they can go home? they do this. also a good lesson for the government not to become corrupted (this has been said many times yk), that scalper & ticketmaster is the best example of that. as one user said: If you think it's not immoral, show your face.

[@talk2mearth]

When nft tech is finally useful

[@54hex]

blockchain has existed way before nft. it was only made known to the non tech savvy public/finance bros when cryto came 😂

[@h10900]

Just have a pool of 20 fans questions , randomized into 3 question and answer before joining the queue. That will deter most bots on event day.

[@wangyaohan8824]

the bot can learn about those, too. information are easy to find.

[@54hex]

@@wangyaohan8824randomise those 20 answer questions. make it SAQ. Just need keywords. Find those rlly og answers from interviews years ago. Cfm win liao. set 10 mins timeframe

[@ngozumpa]

Singapore is pro business ...

[@daroncky]

Copium to beat those bots

[@dweeds]

Don't blame the scalpers, blame the losers who buy from them

[@ariessulistio232]

😂😂😂 True

[@gladiatorgamer9502]

Blame the fans who cant watch free music but want to hear it from the artists themselves 😂

[@chloemaystudy]

13th person in the queue hahhaha

[@freepalestine4333]

😂😂 the game is huge American peoples pay indian guys to buy tickets for them they have 100 of guys who buy tickets for them they get commissions on every ticket

[@Sergio-RSG]

We need regulation with this...

[@freez]

you just need to copy japanese ticketing system, simple

[@lastChang]

The cheapest Swift concert ticket in Singapore was around $usd 100. But you could get it in the black market for usd $3,000. - Thanks for the Chinese scalpers!

[@slowcyclist4324]

I’ve always felt that the best way to solve this problem would be to just make each ticket an open bid. The highest bidder for each ticket gets the seat. If you max out your bid and fail, then you aren’t likely gonna be able to pay the scalper price for it anyway. Then the organisation can just give the extra money to some charity.

[@camilliatangerine8654]

Taylor swift moment😢

[@danielliaw]

The conclusion is dont go for these concert

[@wendyshoowaiching4161]

Stop ruining secondary livelihood

[@Redsunns]

Just boycott these concert events and soon, organisers will listen to the fans...

[@shinramx]

I buy with bot and capture some around 70 ticket ... and resell them all

[@GLL27]

Sounds like a P

[@andquester]

This is such BS men, might aswell recruit a crew to napped the artist for a personal concert😂

[@JLCruise1]

Ticketmaster should be banned.

[@DhavalSalwala]

Concerts are overrated. Who cares.

[@Mew77778]

They should not buy the tickets from him. Let him have 300+ seats to himself 😂

[@Mew77778]

Cna should report him to the authorities for tax evasion.... 100k per event....