How to Avoid Fake Event Tickets in the UAE
Photo: Ninoksha Maria, CC BY-SA 4.0
The busiest weeks of the UAE events season are also the busiest for ticket fraud. In a warning reported on 24 December 2025, Dubai Police's Anti-Fraud Centre, part of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, said fake websites and unverified social media pages were promoting tickets that do not exist for concerts, entertainment, sport and travel (Khaleej Times, Gulf News).
How the scams work
The reports describe a consistent pattern. Scammers copy the name and branding of a known organiser or ticketing platform. They ask you to transfer money or enter card details. Afterwards you find that no ticket was issued, or that unauthorised amounts were taken.
Platinumlist's chief executive told Khaleej Times that the payment flow is often the giveaway: fake sites may use cloned payment gateways or push you towards wallet transfers. He also described a mismatch in one-time-password consent, where buyers believe they are approving a small charge but authorise a much larger one. Lookalike domains are often registered days before a presale, and discounts of 50 to 70 per cent on sold-out or not-yet-on-sale events are another sign.
Checks before you pay
- Start from the organiser's or venue's own website, not from an advert or a social media post.
- Read the link character by character. A lookalike domain differs by a letter, a hyphen or an unusual ending.
- Pay by card, not by bank or wallet transfer to a person.
- Read the one-time-password message and check the amount before you approve it.
- Treat a price far below every other source as a warning.
- Keep the confirmation email and a screenshot.
If it goes wrong
Report it to Dubai Police through the smart app, by calling 901 for non-emergencies, or through the eCrime platform. Cybersecurity experts quoted in the reports say many scams run in short cycles, with fake domains taken down and replaced quickly, so reporting early matters.
How Hadath helps
Every ticket button on Hadath opens the organiser's own page or an authorised seller. We never ask for payment and never resell. Our own guide, how to buy event tickets safely in the UAE, has the same checklist.
FAQs
Is buying resale tickets safe?
The sources we read give no guidance on resale. If you must use it, pay by a method that offers protection and confirm the transfer with the organiser.
Who issued the warning?
Dubai Police's Anti-Fraud Centre, as part of its #BewareOfFraud campaign.
Related guides
Younus leads corporate and MICE delivery at Sparkling Sandset, including team-building programmes, incentive groups and DMC partnerships across Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE. He writes about the operational side of corporate events: venue selection, group logistics, facilitation and what changes when the guest list is a client's, not a family's.