Touts Employ Overseas Workers to Bulk-Buy Gig Tickets
The ticket scalping industry has taken a troubling new turn, as evidence mounts that ticket touts are employing overseas workers to bulk-buy tickets for concerts and events. Using remote click farms and low-wage labour in developing countries, touts can now bypass ticket platform restrictions designed to prevent bulk purchases, allowing them to monopolise ticket sales and resell them at inflated prices.
This strategy, often orchestrated from behind anonymous online fronts, involves hiring workers in countries such as India, the Philippines, and parts of Eastern Europe. These workers are instructed to use multiple fake identities and payment methods to snatch up hundreds of tickets within minutes of release. The tickets are then resold through secondary marketplaces, often for several times their face value.
Industry insiders and consumer rights advocates say this method has exacerbated the challenges that genuine fans face when trying to purchase tickets at fair prices. Despite the introduction of CAPTCHA systems, ticket limits, and ID checks, scalpers continue to find loopholes often by outsourcing the actual clicking and purchasing to coordinated teams.
“These operations are highly organised,” said a cybersecurity analyst who investigates fraud networks. “We’re not just talking about bots anymore. It’s manual labour, overseas, hired specifically to mimic human behaviour and dodge anti-scalping tech.”
Music fans and event organisers alike are calling for tougher legislation and enforcement. While some countries, such as Ireland and the UK, have begun to introduce anti-touting laws, enforcement remains patchy. Digital ticketing companies are also under pressure to enhance their fraud detection systems and increase transparency in resale practices.
Artists like Ed Sheeran have taken a public stand, refusing to honour tickets purchased through unofficial channels. Yet without broader international cooperation, the practice of outsourcing ticket grabs continues to thrive in the shadows.
As long as profit margins remain high and oversight remains inconsistent, the use of global labour to feed the ticket scalping machine is unlikely to disappear. What started as a local annoyance has now evolved into a transnational issue affecting fans worldwide.
Unless serious regulatory and technological reforms are implemented, gig-goers may continue to find themselves outpriced and outmatched by networks operating far beyond their local box office.
