Arkells ticket scam in Halifax under investigation

A concert promoter is reaching out to fans of the Arkells who tried to get into the Canadian band's Halifax show Saturday night, only to discover the tickets they bought online were fake.

Erin McGuire, marketing manager with Sonic Concerts, said the ticket scam was discovered as fans lined up outside the Halifax Forum Multi-Purpose Centre.

McGuire said as some tickets were scanned, the barcode came up as not valid. McGuire didn't know how many tickets were fake.

"Someone had gone through the effort of creating a fake ticket," McGuire said. "Everything about this looked real."

The fake tickets were sold on Kijiji from a number of email addresses.

McGuire said this is the first time a Sonic Concerts production had been hit by a ticket scam.

"We want to make sure we nip this in the bud," McGuire said.

A posting on Sonic Concert's Facebook page asked anyone who fell victim to the scam to email info@sonicconcerts.com with their details and the information would be passed on to Halifax police.

McGuire said the authorized seller of tickets online, etixnow, has been in contact with the fraud department of Halifax police.

McGuire said there is a lesson to be learned from the incident.

"It's not safe to buy tickets off Kijiji," McGuire said. "You just don't know what you're getting."