While they may feel like modern woes, ticket scams have been around for centuries.

In 1867, when Charles Dickens launched his American book tour for A Christmas Carol, $5 tickets were resold on the street for $50.

“We are at wits’ end how to keep tickets out of the hands of speculators,” Dickens wrote in a letter to his sister.

Though fraud isn’t new, the tactics surrounding it are. As technologies advance, so do fraud schemes. Bad actors continue to find ways to cheat the system, benefiting from the trust of earnest ticket buyers. From resellers buying blocks of tickets to scammers using stolen credit card numbers, new threats continue to emerge. But there are ways your organization can combat them.

Prevention techniques help arts and culture venues keep their audiences and organizations safe. Risk rules, digital tickets and reconciliation reports are just a few of the recommended tactics helping Tessitura community members successfully fight fraud and reduce chargebacks. 

Implement risk rules

One of the strongest ways to fight fraud is by putting risk rules in place through your payment provider. The rules you set work together to identify suspicious activity and decline risky transactions. Whether limiting the number of times a card can be used in a specific timeframe or preventing repeat transactions from a single IP address, risk rules can immediately reduce dubious activity and bot attempts. By effectively nipping fraudulent transactions in the bud, your organization’s threat of chargebacks diminishes.

“This has saved us time and money by allowing us to cancel the order before it’s disputed.” 

Mayo Performing Arts Center in New Jersey uses custom risk rules through Tessitura Merchant Services. Built on the technology of leading payment provider Ayden, Tessitura Merchant Services is our end-to-end payment platform with sophisticated risk controls. Since implementing these rules, the organization has experienced a significant reduction in chargebacks.

“The Merchant Services team proactively reaches out when they identify a bad actor that has purchased on our site,” said Cheryl Yosh, Director of Ticketing Services. “This has saved us time and money by allowing us to cancel the order before it’s disputed.”

Tessitura Merchant Services offers a handful of standard risk rules to mitigate fraud right off the bat. Our team can also provide custom recommendations and enhanced security options tailored to your organization’s specific needs.

Perfecting your custom risk profile requires sustained effort. Work with your payment processor to regularly fine-tune risk rules that work for you.

^{Air Supply performing at Mayo Performing Arts Center}

Deliver digital tickets

When it comes to preventing fraud, digital tickets are a great answer. From fending off third-party ticket scams to revealing your shadow audience, secure mobile delivery has many benefits.

James J Thompson, Vice President of Technical Services at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Florida, values Tessitura’s partnership with True Tickets. “True Tickets brings tangible results in helping us fight fraud and keep the chain of command on who has tickets,” James said. “We can see who purchased the tickets and who they sent them to, so we can more clearly identify fraudulent activity.”

Another member organization seeing anti-fraud benefits through the use of digital tickets is Flint Institute of Music in Michigan. “Our tickets use a revolving QR code, so they’re constantly changing,” said Tina Immink, Senior Director for Patron Services and Engagement. “People can’t screenshot and send out multiple tickets, so it’s helping to prevent some of that fraud.”

“We can see who purchased the tickets and who they sent them to, so we can more clearly identify fraudulent activity.” 

Delayed digital ticket delivery is another proactive approach for organizations experiencing unauthorized secondary market activity. The earlier a buyer receives their digital ticket, the easier it is to resell it on the secondary market. Delaying delivery may not impact chargebacks immediately. But over time, the increased resale difficulty will make you less of a target. 

Run regular reconciliation reports

A more hands-on approach to fraud prevention involves closely reviewing reconciliation reports. Regular inspection of your transactions helps your team spot fraudulent activity soon after it occurs. Set up routine reconciliation reports with your payment processor that you review at the start of your day. Catching bad actors early helps your organization reduce future chargebacks.

Iowa’s Des Moines Performing Arts has a comprehensive review system. Each morning, the accounting manager runs a report through Tessitura Merchant Services of the previous day’s transactions. The ticket office team then reviews all the transaction information and cross-checks any suspicious activity.

"We have multiple eyes on the data looking at how much is being charged, the email addresses, what feels like it’s suspect and the reasons for transaction refusals,” said Kennedy Bollmeyer, Director of Ticketing. “It's been really beneficial."

Not only does this practice give the organization insight into bad actors, but it also gives the team a closer look at refused sales. That allows them to make any necessary adjustments to their risk profile. Since putting this practice in place, the organization has seen a decrease in chargebacks.

Dallas Zoo uses a similar method. “Tessitura Merchant Services provides so much visibility into credit card transactions,” said Mark Boyer, Director of CRM and Data Analysis. “If a guest has a dispute or if their card was declined, we can understand why and give them a little bit more context. We can clearly see charges and chargebacks and resolve issues.”  

“We can clearly see charges and chargebacks and resolve issues.” 

Many arts and culture organizations lack the capacity to do this manual work in-house. That’s when Tessitura Merchant Services’ built-in surveillance adds another layer of protection.

For Nathan Stone, the added comfort it’s brought to Nashville Symphony is tangible. “We've seen a dramatic decrease in chargebacks and fraud thanks, in large part, to Tessitura’s in-house fraud team and their close relationship with their payments partner, Adyen. Overall, the switch to Tessitura Merchant Services has absolutely been worth it, and we would recommend it to any Tessitura organization.”

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Prevention doesn’t stop at the above techniques. And there is no one-size-fits-all model for addressing fraud and chargebacks. Through a combination of technology solutions and business processes, your organization can counteract bots and bad actors. And as new fraud tactics emerge, Tessitura continues to evolve our defense for the Tessitura community.

For a more comprehensive fraud prevention guide, check our list of recommended practices. If you have questions about putting these recommendations into practice, please open a support ticket. Interested in working with Tessitura Merchant Services? Learn more in this webinar recording.

Banner photo by Ricardo Cornejo, courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County