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.

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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.

“It's saved us hundreds of thousands at this point.” 

Walton Arts Center in Arkansas has custom risk rules in place through Tessitura Merchant Services, our end-to-end payment platform powered by Adyen. Prior to implementing risk rules, Walton Arts Center faced six-figure chargebacks each season. As ticketing fraud evolved, that number rose.

With Tessitura Merchant Services, the organization immediately saw chargebacks decrease significantly. “It’s saved us hundreds of thousands at this point,” said Tiffin Feltner, Director of Ticketing Services.

Together with the Tessitura Merchant Services team, Walton Arts Center adjusts its risk profiles routinely to ensure they are blocking fraudulent activity instead of legitimate patrons. “The payment specialist team also responds to trends they see without us asking them,” Tiffin said. “They caught a bad actor trying to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions. Our relationship with that team has been really clutch."

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

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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 to fraud prevention 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.

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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, allowing them to make any necessary adjustments to their risk profiles. Since putting this practice in place, the organization has seen a decrease in chargebacks.

“The Tessitura Merchant Services team is a security blanket that I can’t buy with money.” 

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 Tiffin Feltner, the added comfort it’s brought to Walton Ars Center is tangible. “The Tessitura Merchant Services team is a security blanket that I can’t buy with money,” Tiffin said. “It’s so important. I can’t tell you how safe I feel knowing that someone out there is watching and collecting data and making sure that there aren’t nefarious actors taking advantage of me and our patrons. And if there are, we can flush them out and make sure they’re not doing it any longer.” 

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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 out 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.