How to sell tickets safely: the scams that target sellers
Fake payment screenshots, refund tricks and requests to transfer first. How scams on sellers work, and the habits that stop them.
Most ticket scam advice is written for buyers. Sellers get targeted too, and the trick is almost always the same: get you to send the tickets before real money lands.
The patterns to know
- The screenshot payment. The buyer sends an image of a payment that never happened, or one that is still pending. Check your own account, not their screenshot.
- Transfer first, pay later. “Send them now, I’ll pay as soon as they show up.” Once a ticket transfers, you can’t pull it back.
- The overpayment. They send too much and ask for the difference back. The first payment reverses; your refund doesn’t.
- The fake marketplace email. A message that looks like a sale confirmation asks you to log in through a link. Open the marketplace app yourself instead.
- The account handover. Never share your ticketing login. Whoever holds it holds every ticket in it.
Let a marketplace hold the money
Resale marketplaces collect the buyer’s payment and pay you after the event: StubHub in 5 to 8 business days, Vivid Seats within 7, Ticketmaster typically within 7, Gametime 48 hours after. The delay is the protection. The buyer knows the tickets work before you see the money, and you never chase a payment.
Mobile transfer helps too. 95.8% of Vivid Seats listings on this site’s events deliver that way, and every transfer leaves a record in the issuer’s app with the buyer’s email on it.
If you sell privately anyway
- Wait until the payment clears in your own account before you transfer.
- Transfer only from the issuer’s app, to the buyer’s email.
- Keep the messages, the payment record and the transfer confirmation.
- Know the platform’s rules. Meta lists event tickets as restricted on Marketplace; see selling on Facebook Marketplace.