Styrian entrepreneur in court: Hahnenkamm ticket fraud exposes!

Styrian entrepreneur in court: Hahnenkamm ticket fraud exposes!

A 31-year-old entrepreneur from Styria is on trial for fraud after trying to acquire VIP Tickets for the renowned Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel in January. According to Krone , the accused submitted payment confirmations to the Harti-Weirather agency WWP, but the money never arrived. The entrepreneur justified his insolvency with a lack of payments by debtors.

However, the court had to do without the presence of the accused. This did not appear to continue the process due to illness. His defender brought a photo of a fever thermometer with 38 degrees. In addition, the defense lawyer presented open claims of 82,600 euros, which the accused had from his debtors. The defendant's bank supervisor was not freed from his obligation to commit, which continued to be unclear the financial situation.

court judgment and intention to fraud

The judge found that no intention to fraud could be proven and explained that the purchase of the VIP tickets in view of the financial situation of the accused was incomprehensible but not punishable. This raises questions about the limits of the ticket purchase and the associated risks.

Tickets for events should always be purchased via official ticket offices to avoid fraud. According to ProSieben is frequent when it comes to resale via platforms such as eBay-small ads. Fraudsters buy tickets in large quantities and sell them at excessive prices, which brings consumers into a dangerous location.

tips for avoiding ticket fraud

The consumers are urgently asked to be careful when buying ticket purchases. Characteristics of tickets should be checked on the website of the initial provider. This includes holograms, barcodes, clear ticket numbers and the quality of the paper. In the event of suspicious signs, such as extremely low prices or missing information, the alarm should be triggered. The risks are high in particular for large ticket exchanges such as Viagogo and Stubhub.

experts advise to check providers well, especially for new and unknown platforms. A missing or incomplete imprint can be a warning signal. In the case of payments already made, there is little room for maneuver, except in the Charge-Back procedure for credit card payments, which underpins the importance of secure means of payment. In the case of ticket fraud, the police should be filed immediately.

online fraud and manipulation

A much discussed topic is online fraud when buying a ticket, which is not only a problem at sporting events. In a further case, the Italian competition authority imposed a punishment of around 20 million euros against the ticket agency CoopCulture. This was accused of having obtained tickets via Bots and sold at higher prices. This shows how far -reaching the problem is and why consumers are called for caution. Tickets should always be bought via official providers to avoid manipulations, such as ZDF explained.