Ticket touts: don’t be a sell-out
A licence to print money. As the computer’s red light blinks in the dark, its owner starts another shift that will swipe him a five-figure sum by close of play. But there is no cash piled up in bundles next to the screen — all the money traded is online and almost invisible. This isn’t a sting, a City ‘boiler room’ scam or a sophisticated credit fraud; this man is making hay on the backs of One Direction, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. Coining it in through in-demand teen choices is child’s play. Using security-dodging software, the ticket tout logs in, buys as many tickets as he wants through legal websites for the capital’s most desired events and sells them on at a mark-up.