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UK Oasis fans have lost an estimated £2 million to ticket scammers since tickets for the historic reunion tour went on sale last year, according to new research.
Analysing over 1,000 reports from its customers, Lloyds Bank found a surge in fraud cases around the sold-out run, with 56% of all reported concert ticket scams being for the Mancunian rockers.
“The Oasis tour is the latest target for ticket scammers, with millions of pounds of fans’ money stolen before the gigs even kick off,” says Liz Ziegler, Lloyds’ fraud prevention director.
Victims have lost an average of £436 each, with the largest amount lost at over £1,700, the banking group found. Combined with its own clientele, Lloyds gauged roughly 5,000 individuals have been targeted, resulting in over £2m lost to fraudsters.
Ticket swindles for the sold-out run are surging across social media platforms, with a reported 90% of incidents starting on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Fake adverts and unofficial resale groups are prime deceivers for fans looking to score tickets.
“The fact that so many cases start with fake listings on social media, often in violation of the platforms’ own rules, underscores the importance of these companies taking stronger action to tackle scams,” Ziegler says. “It’s vital that consumers feel empowered to shop safely online. Buying directly from reputable, authorised retailers is the only way to guarantee you’re paying for a genuine ticket.”
Oasis’s 2025 tour onsale rocketed to become the biggest-ever concert launch in the UK and Ireland
These new findings are the latest chapter in the ongoing saga around Oasis’ ticket sales, which sent the nation into frenzy during the onsale last August. It rocketed to become the biggest-ever concert launch in the UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries attempting to buy tickets for the group’s first shows since 2009.
With the blockbuster demand and swift sell-outs came reports of dynamic pricing, prompting government and watchdog investigations into the tour. In February, a new twist came as ticketing platforms Ticketmaster and See Tickets cancelled an unspecified number of tickets bought by those believed to have broken the terms and conditions.
Predatory cons are seemingly unavoidable with high-profile tours of this magnitude. Similar reports emerged last year around Taylor Swift’s record-shattering Eras Tour run, with UK fans losing over £1m in addition to scams in Australia and Singapore.
All of this comes ahead of the legendary British rock group’s return to touring this summer. The Oasis Live 2025 tour, promoted by Live Nation, MCD Productions, SJM Concerts and DF Concerts, will see the group relaunch at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium (cap. 74,500) from 4-5 July before continuing onto Manchester’s Heaton Park (11-12, 16, 19-20 July), London’s Wembley Stadium (25-26, 30 July, 2-3 August & 27-28 September), Edinburgh’s Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium (8-9, 12 August), and Dublin’s Croke Park (16-17 August).
The reunion tour will then see the group play stadiums across North America, Asia, Australia, and South America before the year is out.
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A dispute between insurer Lloyd’s and Australia’s Subsonic relating to the festival’s 2019 cancellation has gone to court.
Event organiser Scott Commens is suing Lloyd’s for A$900,000 (€581,000) after the insurer argued the 5,000-cap electronic music festival, set for Riverwood Downs, near Monkerai, could still have proceeded despite the Black Summer bushfires raging in the area.
The Advocate reports that Lloyd’s stands by its decision not to pay out, with the company’s barrister Mark Newton pointing to the venue taking other bookings in the month that Subsonic was due to have been held.
“There was a variety of reasons why the landowner decided the event could not take place,” added Newton, who said the major issue was a question of fact about the “policy trigger” for the cancellation.
“It was a pretty dire circumstance”
According to documents previously filed with the federal court, Commens claims the December 2019 cancellation was necessary due to the extreme weather threat.
Stephen Walsh, representing Commens at a case management hearing earlier this month, said his client was seeking compensation for expenses incurred that had been calculated in a forensic accountant’s report.
Adjourning the case to February, on a date to be confirmed, Chief Justice James Allsop described the 2019/20 bushfires – which claimed 34 lives – as some of the “worst in living memory”. “It was a pretty dire circumstance,” he added.
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