Gardaí are understood to have identified 20 people who were allegedly scammed into buying fake tickets to Electric Picnic. 

In a statement, An Garda Síochána urged the public to “exert a great degree of caution if attempting to purchase tickets for a sold out event through any third-party known or otherwise”. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, For Tech’s Sake podcast host Elaine Burke explained how scams have evolved over the years and become more convincing. 

“A number of these websites and profiles are targeting Irish users by masquerading as Irish sounding shops,” she explained. 

“What they do is they capitalise on responding to how consumers are learning about scams. 

“Consumers have learned by now that if something looks like it’s too good to be true, if the price looks too good to be true, then it’s likely a scam. 

“So, what they do to counteract that is they create this story of closing down sales - so, prices have been slashed and that explains the low cost of things.” 

A person opening their phone. Picture by: PA Wire/PA Images.

Ms Burke added that many people are naturally less suspicious of Irish brands and also want to support local businesses. 

“That’s why they create this idea of a store that’s been founded in Ireland, that has a background here in Ireland, has a location here in Ireland,” she said. 

“They’ve spoofed that in different ways through the naming of these sites and profiles, through AI generated imagery, to give a backstore to different the alleged people in these stores.” 

Ms Burke suggested looking out for AI images and something looks “too good to be true”, then it usually is.

Main image: A woman entering her credit card details. Picture by: Alamy.com.