Meet the UoB students who have fallen victim to ticket scammers on Fab n’ Fresh

‘I was stupid and naïve, but definitely taken advantage of’

| UPDATED

We’ve all been there – you realise at 4pm on a Saturday that your seminar prep can wait, and that life would be incomplete without a ticket to Fab at the Guild.

You post a last minute ‘looking for a fab ticket!’ to Fab n’ Fresh and sit hopefully by your phone, waiting for a message from a silly fresh who has gone just a bit too hard at bottomless brunch and is having to forfeit their right to fab.

However, over the past few weeks, it seems like there has been a huge spike of fake ticket sellers in Fab n’ Fresh, and we spoke to a number of students who have fallen victim.

One second year student missed out on clubbing last year due to the pandemic, and was therefore unaware of what to expect when buying a ticket to Sports Night. After paying £7, she was sent a ticket which she believed to be legitimate, having not seen a ticket to the event before. However, she says the ticket was fake. She told The Birmingham Tab, “I was a bit stupid and naïve to believe the tickets, but was definitely taken advantage of.”

One final year Psychology student also lost out to a seller from Fab n’ Fresh, this one supposedly selling tickets to Tektu. He told The Birmingham Tab, “I got scammed twice […] she said she refunded me so we tried it again and that’s when she blocked me”.

The conversation the student had with the ticket seller

The Guild posted a statement to Fab n’ Fresh, commenting, “We’d ask that you only buy tickets through official channels (from the Guild and our website) so that you can be sure that you’re getting the real deal and to avoid any disappointment.”

The guild’s statement

No matter what the Guild says, there will always be ticket sellers on Fab n’ Fresh – most of whom are legitimate students who simply can’t make it out that night. To help you stay vigilant, here is a list of warning signs which may help you figure out whether a seller is legitimate or not.

Warning Signs: 

• Look at the seller’s profile. Do they look like a student? If they don’t look like a student, have no profile picture, and especially if their Facebook account has only just been created, they may not be legitimate.

• Notice any mutual details you may have. Although UoB is a big place, it is quite unlikely that you would not have a single mutual friend, group or liked page with another student. Be especially wary of accounts that you have nothing in common with.

• Use your brain. If you post on Fab n’ Fresh ‘looking for 11 Fab tickets’ at 8pm on a Saturday, and somebody immediately replies, it may be a scam. Remember the old saying – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

When approached for comment, the admins of Fab n’ Fresh Facebook page said: “We want to make sure that our students have the best and safest clubbing experience possible. A big part of this is ensuring that tickets are only purchased through the official channels, namely the Guild website and via Joe’s Bar, to prevent students becoming victims of scam”.

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