FOI 4638-25 Ticket scams
Request:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The purpose of this request is to gather data on complaints received by your police force regarding ticket scams.
Specifically, I am seeking information on the following:
1. The total number of ticket fraud crime reports made to the police force for each of the past five years (from Feb 2020 to Feb 2025)
If held, please provide:
- A distinction between concert and football ticket scams
- The names of the venues identified in each report
- The name of the artist or football team identified in each report
2. The total sum of money lost to the above reported ticket fraud incidents per year for each of the past five years (from Feb 2020 to Feb 2025).
- If not held as a yearly figure, please provide a list of the sum of money lost per ticket fraud incident
Response:
Searches were conducted within Northamptonshire Police to locate the information and I can now confirm that Northamptonshire Police does not hold all the information relative to your request.
It is important to understand the process of how reports of fraud are received and dealt with in Northamptonshire Police.
When a victim of fraud contacts us, if it is not a call for service (i.e. someone needs to attend) then the victim is directed to Action Fraud. If it is a call for service, then an officer will attend and this will also again be referred to Action Fraud. All frauds are reported to Action Fraud. Another way a victim may report a fraud is direct to Action Fraud via their online reporting service. Action Fraud then triage those reports and based on solvability a percentage are returned to Force for investigation.
Therefore, Action Fraud are best placed to provide comprehensive information on reports of fraud. The figure sent back to Northamptonshire Police for investigation will be considerably lower than the figure that Action Fraud receive.