Lady GagaCharles Krupa/AP/Press Association Images

Tickets for the two UK shows on Lady Gaga's world tour went on sale at 9am this morning. Within minutes they had sold out and within hours the ticket reselling sites featured thousands of tickets for sale.

However, the risk of being overcharged for an official ticket is not the real danger to watch for. Within just a few short hours there were reports of fakes hitting the internet.

Resellers

The resellers are an irritation for any genuine concern fan who wants to see their idol without forking out a small fortune and making money for those who wouldn't be able to tell Lady Gaga from Kylie Minogue.

Just four hours after all the official tickets sold out, there were more than four thousand available online again, starting at just under £100 for a ticket, and going up to £1,250 for the most ludicrously overpriced ones. The official tickets cost between £90 and £190.


And while there are plenty of people just looking to cash in by inflating the price of the ticket, the ones that will be really heartbreaking are the fakes.

The fakes

Whenever an event sells out this quickly the criminals see their opportunity to cash in. They set up fake websites or sell fake tickets on internet auction sites. However, once they have received your money, no ticket will ever materialise. In some instances, a pretty piece of paper will come through the post, but when the fans show up at the concert they discover to their horror that their ticket isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

In this instance, some sellers on auction sites started selling fakes earlier this week - after Lady Gaga announced the tour dates but before they went on sale - so there is no chance these are legitimate.

Lady Gaga gigs have already attracted high profile fakes. In March last year a 28 year old American woman was ordered to pay $7,000 restitution and complete work service and three years' probation after selling 47 fake tickets. There have also been reports of hundreds of fakes at shows across the US and in Spain.

So how can you avoid the fakes?

Of course the trouble with buying online is that you don't have a chance to check the authenticity of the tickets before they are delivered - and you can never be 100% certain before you show up on the day.

No protections are entirely foolproof, but there are a few steps worth taking. It may be best to steer clear of auction sites for your tickets. There may well be hundreds of legitimate sellers on these sites, but it's impossible to distinguish them from the fakes.

It's also essential to avoid sites you have never heard of. Many of these will try to fool you they are legitimate offshoots of Lady Gaga's official site, and may include the words Lady Gaga, alongside words like 'live' or 'concert'.

Instead, if you are determined to buy a ticket from a reseller, only consider buying from a reputable re-selling site, which offers guarantees. Your best bet is to use one which guarantees to provide alternative tickets or a full refund if the seller does not deliver.

When your tickets arrive, check they are differently numbered and check that the barcode is different on each.

If in doubt, it always pays to err on the side of caution. Because while it's frustrating to be without a ticket, it's far more frustrating to have spent hundreds or even thousands on a fake.

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