Fake WHP ticket seller is scamming students out of hundreds

Hundreds of hopeful ravers posting on event pages and Facebook ticket groups have been scammed out of their money.

This year, over half of The Warehouse Project tickets sold out on the first day of release, leaving thousands with no way of getting in other than to try their luck from sellers on Facebook.

Fraudulently, a number of sellers have taken this for granted by passing on fake tickets for higher than face value.

One trickster in particular has been personally approaching hopeful students via Facebook message in response to them posting on the group.

Due to the sheer scale of his scam it appears that this one seller has managed to make hundreds of pounds out of his targets, with a number of other scammers doing the same.

As a disguise for his criminal behaviour, he explained to potential buyers that he bought loads of tickets on presale so he could make some money, due to being a “poor student” at Man Met.

One of the many fake tickets sold

On top of this, to make it more legitimate, he made it clear to everyone wanting to buy tickets that they would have to meet in person to hand over the money.

Second year Sarah and her friends were scammed out of £165 by the seller for five WHP shows by a user appearing under the name Luke West West.

She told The Tab: “‘Luke Westy West’ inboxed me asking if I still needed Annie Mac tickets and had a long story about how we should meet in person incase I tried to scam him.

“I saw him posting on a group about another account being fake as his mate had been scammed last year, so this gave me confidence that he was legit and a safe guy. He was very persistent with asking about what time we were meeting and seemed worried that I wouldn’t turn up.

“When I gave him the money he didn’t even count it which I thought was weird, but I’ve always bought e-tickets off other people and never had issues so just assumed it would be fine.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only story. Third year Beth called the police after realising she had been mugged off by the same dodgy seller. She said: “He messaged me after I posted on the event page for the RA x Dekmantel night and we agreed on £60 for two tickets.

“When I met him, I took my Sounds of the Near Future ticket with me to check authenticity but when he deleted his Facebook profile a few days later, I knew something wasn’t right.

“I contacted WHP to check my ticket and they replied saying it was definitely fake.”

Criminology student Bella came to Manchester from Bristol last weekend for Tropical for her boyfriend’s birthday with five friends. Luckily, she had real tickets and managed to get in, but her five friends didn’t.

“I’d been speaking to ‘Luke’ on Facebook for about six weeks and we’d planned to meet in Manchester and exchange £200 for five tickets. We spoke at least once a week and I told him how far we were coming from, and he showed me a receipt for the tickets beforehand.

“We told the bouncers and they took his name down and said that there were over 100 fake tickets that night.”

People have outed a user under the name of Luke West West

However, it seems that those mugged out of their money won’t get it back.

The Warehouse Project clearly states in their terms and conditions: “The original purchaser of the ticket(s) must be present at the time of redemption and will be required to have photographic ID (a valid passport or drivers license) and the bank card they made the purchase with.

“All Tickets purchased by you must be for personal use.  If any re-sale (or attempted re-sale) of tickets is made in contravention of any law or our policies we may cancel such tickets.”