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Fraudsters are planning on flooding the market with "highly convincing" fake wristbands for UK music festivals next year, meaning chaos for organisers. The warning about fake festival wristbands was made by Iridium Security's Reg Walker at yesterday's UK Festival Conference in London. He said that there was evidence that at least one criminal gang had undertaken a "test run" by supplying a smaller amount of fake wrist bands this summer, adding that he believed the fraudsters were now ready to step up their operation for 2010. The trading of fake wristbands for major events is nothing new, but, as festival promoters have introduced more sophisticated ticketing systems, so the fraudsters have got better at manufacturing fakes that look genuine. According to the BBC, Walker warned the conference audience: "What's worrying is the quality of the wristbands, right down to the barcode. They're highly convincing and virtually indistinguishable from the real item. And when you have hundreds of people all trying to get through the gates, the pressure is on the security staff to let people in".
Fraudsters to "step up operations"
Walker, who works with the V, T In The Park and Isle Of Wight festivals, said that while he felt most festival security teams had been on top of the fraudulent tickets this year, he feared that the number of fake wristbands could increase significantly in 2010, meaning security types will have to step up their operations to meet the challenge. He bases his assumption that the fraudsters will step up their operation next summer on the basis that they have invested quite a lot to set up the fake wristband operation, and would therefore presumably want to cash in on that investment by selling more fake tickets. Walker added: "The amount of effort and expense they have gone to, means it is not commercially viable to produce these in their hundreds. I believe it was a test run and that next year there is a plan to manufacture them in their thousands. One or more of the major festivals is going to get hit unless we deal with this now. This is the most serious problem and the most serious challenge we face in 2010". For sell out events, of course, the sale of fake tickets will not hugely hit the revenues of festival promoters. Meanwhile Walker is confident that with some effort security teams can spot the fakes and stop those holding counterfeit tickets from getting access. But of course that doesn't mean the fakes won't cause problems. He concluded: "If you have many thousands of people turned away when they have paid £100, £150 or £200, that is where the danger lies. All your planning relies on knowing how many people you have to deal with. You would need massive resources to try and contain that and stop them gaining entry". All of which means the festival industry needs to work together to educate music fans to not buy tickets from dodgy touts or unofficial online agencies, though obviously for in-demand sell out events, people will always take risks in a bid to get tickets. Additional reporting by CMU Network
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