Ticket scamming — where fraudsters attempt to sell non-existent tickets via social media — has rapidly become an infodemic in itself during the Covid-19 era, especially as Aotearoa is one of the only countries in the world where live events have been able to take place unrestricted in recent times. A casual glance at some high profile Auckland Facebook event listings for this week (which are all cancelled due to Alert Level 3) reveals a seemingly endless array of bots trying to sell each other obviously fake tickets (to view a screengrab follow this safe link here), which would be darkly humorous if not for the fact they’re trying to rip you off.

The first lesson in Ticket Scammers 101 is to forgive yourself for…