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this summer, liu yu (pseudonym), who works in the tourism industry in beijing, received more than a dozen calls from relatives and friends asking for help with tickets to the national museum.

"at the beginning, i still had hope and kept a close eye on the reservation system for several days, but even though every second counted, i failed to win the ticket war in the end." in order not to disappoint relatives and friends, liu yu had to "switch" to a second-hand trading platform and bought 7 tickets from scalpers three times, spending a total of 3,300 yuan.

"at the beginning, the price of a national museum summer ticket increased by at least 100 yuan, and the price fluctuated to varying degrees depending on the date. after that, it became more and more exaggerated, saying 'there is no guarantee that you can make an appointment, you must place an order 7 days in advance', and the price was increased by 500 yuan. if there was a temporary demand, the price of one ticket would be increased by at least 1,000 yuan." liu yu said.

not only museum tickets, a recent investigation by legal daily reporters found that scalpers can be found in almost all areas where "ticket grabbing" is needed, such as concerts, scenic spots, and exhibition halls. some popular performances and exhibitions with "hell-level ticket grabbing difficulty" force consumers who yearn for them to buy from scalpers at prices several times higher than the original price. scalpers in the ticket market may have their own ticket purchasing channels, or use "human sea tactics" to organize a large number of "hot buyers" to snap up tickets, and some even use technological means to develop "scripts" and "packet capture" programs for "machine grabbing". this "machine grabbing" program has also become a commodity, and is sold to netizens who need to grab tickets at a clearly marked price.

experts interviewed believe that the reasons why scalpers continue to sell tickets despite repeated bans involve multiple factors such as imbalance in supply and demand, technical support and information asymmetry, insufficient enforcement of laws and regulations, and consumer psychology. whether it is concert or museum tickets, as long as they are scarce resources, they will become the target of scalpers' reselling. with the support of "technical means", the success rate of scalpers' snapping up tickets is getting higher and higher, making it difficult for the general public to buy tickets through official channels, and they can only turn to the scalper market. in this regard, on the one hand, relevant departments should promptly discover, severely crack down on, and govern the illegal behavior of scalpers reselling tickets in accordance with the law; on the other hand, museums, ticketing platforms, etc. need to continuously modify and improve their own ticket release rules to plug loopholes in the reservation or ticket sales process.

scalpers hoard tickets in large quantities

the scarcer the ticket, the higher the price

the number of tourists from all over the world has surged in the summer vacation that just ended. some popular online attractions have introduced a reservation system, which means "grabbing a number" on the mini program in advance and visiting according to the specific date and time period reserved. this reservation system was originally intended to control the flow of tourists, but it gave "scalpers" a "business opportunity".

guo ke, a shanghai resident, told reporters that a popular online bookstore in shanghai has implemented such a reservation system. the online bookstore will release reservation quotas for five time periods a day on its mini program in advance, with more than 500 quotas for each time period. recently, the reporter browsed the mini program and found that the bookstore's reservation situation was quite "hot", with all time periods showing "full" within 5 days.

the reporter saw on a second-hand trading platform that there were a large number of "scalpers" selling the bookstore's visiting tickets, posting text messages like "make an appointment with me all day, you can visit at any time, the reservation code can enter all day." the reporter noticed a post that advertised that you can "buy a number" to enter the bookstore at any time. after consulting, the "scalper" told the reporter: "we will grab a lot of numbers here in advance, and they will be issued immediately after purchase."

the bookstore, which originally offered free reservations, had a reservation code product link that was grabbed by a scalper and was priced at 8 yuan. the reporter further asked the seller and was told that the price was a "traffic-inducing price" and the actual selling price was 12 yuan. after the reporter placed an order, the scalper sent a screenshot of a qr code, saying that he could enter the store by showing it. guo ke then used the screenshot of the qr code that the reporter bought from the scalper to enter the store smoothly.

"the bookstore has less than 3,000 reservation slots available every day. how many of them are snatched up by scalpers like these? they are simply occupying public resources for their own personal gain." guo ke felt helpless.

in addition to transferring the reservation numbers they have on hand, many "scalpers" have also started the business of "grabbing numbers on behalf of others". for example, on a second-hand trading platform, you can see advertisements such as "accepting all kinds of bookings, waiting for you, whether it is a tourist attraction or a museum, anything is possible". the reporter consulted one of the sellers and learned that for attractions and museums that require real-name entry, it is necessary to provide identity information to the "scalper". after the "scalper" grabs the number, he pays the agreed "grabbing fee". the reporter noticed that museums in many provinces are among the "scalpers" who grab the number on behalf of others.

not long ago, a media outlet randomly interviewed 30 tourists outside the national museum. only two of them made reservations through formal channels, while the other 28 were made by scalpers. according to technical staff at the palace museum, during the peak summer season, scalper requests accounted for nearly 90% of the initial traffic in the palace museum's mini-program ticketing system. if they were not intercepted and dealt with, it would be difficult for ordinary users to participate in the competition and buy tickets.

the reporter’s investigation found that scalpers also sell various types of vip tickets.

when the reporter inquired about the tickets for a certain museum, a scalper recommended that vip tickets were "more practical" and that they could enter the museum without using real names, "avoiding the scorching sun and being the first to step into the palace of cultural relics." the scalper sent the reporter a picture of the vip ticket, and the reporter noticed that the ticket was marked with the words "cooperative ticket" and clearly stated that "this ticket is not for sale."

on various social platforms and second-hand trading platforms, the price of such vip tickets has been driven up to between 500 yuan and 800 yuan. in addition to second-hand trading platforms, social platforms and other channels, such tickets are also sold on major third-party travel platforms. staff from several museums in beijing and shanghai told reporters that at the green channel entrances of some museums, visitors holding vip tickets only need to show the physical ticket to enter the venue. according to reports, such tickets are generally "gift tickets from cooperative units" and are not circulated to the public.

various "tactics" to grab tickets

forwarding personal information recklessly

where do the tickets in the hands of scalpers come from?

the reporter’s investigation found that many scalpers have developed the business of snatching goods on behalf of others.

"i met a scalper through a friend. he would send us information about ticket grabbing." huang lin from jiangsu became a concert ticket scalper to "earn extra money." she told reporters that the scalper who organized them to grab tickets called himself a "ticket agent" and would post information in the "circle of friends" and "scalper group" from time to time to notify the "scalpers" to start the ticket grab.

according to her, in a ticket grabbing event she had participated in, a front-row ticket for a popular singer's concert worth 1,280 yuan was driven up to tens of thousands of yuan.

"we mainly rely on the large number of people. whether we can get a ticket depends on luck. there is also a type of ticket called a booked ticket, which is even more expensive." huang lin explained that a booked ticket is a "channel ticket", that is, a free ticket reserved by the organizer. some "scalpers" with connections can get these free tickets and sell them at a high price. some scenic spots and museums also have such free tickets, which can also be obtained by "scalpers" with channels and connections and flow into the market.

according to huang lin, if you can grab a ticket for a popular show, you can get a four-digit "snatching fee". "you never know how many scalpers are above you reselling the ticket, and the final ticket will cost five figures when it reaches the buyer."

in order to understand the process of proxy shooting, the reporter joined a "hot seller group" called "get rich and become a rich man". there are more than 200 "hot sellers" in the group, and new people are joining every day. the group announcement of the group announced: "we are taking proxy shooting. there will be no consequences if we fail to grab the photos. just take it as practice." the group owner constantly encouraged the "hot sellers" to invite people to join the group. every time 15 people are added, there will be a "red envelope reward". "you can also invite your friends to grab photos. if your friends grab photos, i will give you 10% of the commission as a reward."

on the first day the reporter joined the group, there were nearly 60 ticket orders. these orders stated the performance date and number of performances required by the "employer". in addition, there were specific personal information such as name and id number. some orders were marked "exclusive".

the reporter asked the group owner and learned that "exclusive" orders are orders that "employers" directly find the group organizer to grab tickets, while "non-exclusive" orders are orders that the group organizer obtains through other channels, and "it's not just us who help grab tickets." in this way, the personal information of the "employers" was forwarded and spread again and again in the "popular group" of more than 200 people or even a larger range.

chen xi, a lawyer at beijing dacheng (shenzhen) law firm, has helped consumers who were cheated by scalpers to protect their rights. according to her, some scalpers would sell multiple tickets for the same ticket.

"there are many levels of agents in the scalper circle. after the upper-level scalpers get the internal ticket quota, they will pass it on to the lower-level agents. hundreds of people in a group will receive the information, and then sell it to their lower-level groups. each scalper may sell the ticket to his own customers. often there are only one or two quotas, but they are sold to many people." chen xi said that in the end, scalpers will generally choose to sell at a high price. for the lower-level scalpers, if the upper-level scalpers do not get the tickets and do not refund the money, then the lower-level scalpers will directly "run away" and breach the contract and not refund the money to the consumers.

there are also "scalpers" who directly use "technological means" to grab tickets.

during the investigation, the reporter randomly added a "scalper" whose social "friend circle" was full of ticket sales information for popular singers' performances on the market, and he posted many successful orders. the reporter chose a popular concert to consult the "scalper", who said, "as long as the tickets are released, the hit rate will be very high." when the reporter asked how to ensure the success rate of grabbing tickets, the "scalper" said, "we have a team, and the machine grabs the tickets."

not long ago, the people's procuratorate of haidian district, beijing, handled a "scalper" ticket scalping case. case data shows that the suspect used the ticket grabbing software developed by himself, relying on the valid identity information of others that he had already mastered, to grab a large number of ticket resources. generally speaking, there is a "time difference" of nearly 7 days between the successful ticket reservation and the permission for ticket refund. after attracting real tourists, they used this "time difference" to constantly refund and grab tickets in the reservation system, and so on. it is understood that in the summer of 2023 alone, the gang involved in the case made an illegal profit of more than 300,000 yuan in less than a month.

this kind of "machine grabbing" script is not only used by the "scalper" team themselves, but also becomes a commodity sold to people who have the need to buy.

"automatic ticket grabbing scripts can help you enter the ticket buying backstage earlier than others..." on a certain social platform, as long as you enter the keyword "ticket grabbing script", a large amount of information about the sale of ticket grabbing scripts will appear, covering the grabbing of concert tickets, grabbing train tickets, etc. the price of ticket grabbing scripts on second-hand trading platforms fluctuates greatly, ranging from 1 yuan to 200 yuan. the high price usually comes with the seller's promise of "teaching you until you learn" after buying the script.

the reporter contacted one of the sellers, who told the reporter that the program can cover multiple ticket grabbing platforms. as long as you enter the show number, main ticket price, backup ticket price and the number of viewers in the program, you can "start grabbing tickets at the right time."

"in fact, the script is equivalent to a simulator that can simulate the entire process of people clicking to grab tickets." xie yixuan, research assistant at the information hub of the hong kong university of science and technology (guangzhou), told reporters that this script can simulate human clicks at the moment the tickets are opened. if tickets cannot be grabbed on the first click, continuous clicks can be used to grab returned tickets. the speed is much faster than hand speed, so the success rate of grabbing tickets is higher.

establishing departmental collaboration mechanism

integrate forces for comprehensive governance

on one hand, consumers' favorite concerts, museums, etc. are out of reach, while on the other hand, scalpers hold large quantities of tickets and raise the prices.

zhao zhanling, a lawyer at beijing jiawei law firm, pointed out that it is illegal for scalpers to grab tickets manually or by writing scripts, and then resell them at a higher price. they are all considered to be reselling valuable tickets, which violates the public security administration punishment law. if the number and amount of resale reach a certain standard, it may constitute the crime of illegal business operation in the criminal law.

"in the current laws and regulations, there is still a lack of clear and specialized judicial interpretation of the specific behavior of 'scalpers' reselling tickets, which to a certain extent limits the effective crackdown on such illegal activities. therefore, it is necessary to issue special judicial interpretations to clarify and regulate such behaviors. it can not only improve the accuracy and intensity of the crackdown on such illegal activities, but also effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and maintain a fair competition environment in the market." said weng xiaoping, a lawyer at kyoto law firm who has specialized in sorting out related cases involving "scalpers."

according to the interviewed industry insiders, in practice, scalpers are still rampant due to the difficulty in collecting evidence and the high cost of law enforcement. some consumers even tolerate and rely on scalper tickets to a certain extent out of the mentality of "it's good to be able to buy tickets".

"the difficulties in cracking down on scalpers lie mainly in the low cost of breaking the law, the difficulty of supervision and the strong consumer demand. compared with the high illegal profits, the penalties under existing relevant regulations are relatively light and cannot form an effective deterrent effect, resulting in scalpers being willing to take risks for high profits. scalpers' ticket reselling activities are varied and the transaction methods are concealed, plus there are many people involved, which increases the difficulty for regulatory authorities to crack down on them. even if the police invest a lot of manpower to crack down on scalpers, it is difficult to cover all the chaos." chen xi said.

based on past case handling experience, chen xi noticed that currently illegal developers are more likely to sell ticket-grabbing programs through informal channels, which are relatively concealed. in addition, some ticket-grabbing scripts can be "renovated" and put back on the shelves at any time after being "blocked", making supervision very difficult.

"it is difficult to restrict the 'technological means' of 'scalpers' simply through legal means." chen xi believes that with the advancement of technology, scalpers will have more means to grab tickets. in addition to regulation by laws and regulatory forces, relevant ticketing platforms should also strengthen technical defenses.

weng xiaoping suggested that in order to effectively combat the scalping of tickets by scalpers, we need to start from many aspects. relevant laws and regulations should be improved, especially the punishment of scalpers should be increased, the cost of violations should be increased, and potential violations should be deterred. at the same time, market supervision should be strengthened, and technical means should be used to monitor and combat online transactions of scalpers' tickets, and violations should be promptly investigated and dealt with. a multi-departmental collaboration mechanism should be established to integrate the forces of cultural, public security, market supervision and other departments to form a comprehensive governance means to combat scalpers in order to achieve a more powerful governance effect. ticketing platforms should implement a strict real-name ticket purchase system, while limiting the number of ticket refunds to reduce the opportunities for scalpers to conduct illegal transactions using ticket refund loopholes. in addition, the quality and quantity of ticket supply for popular performances or activities should be improved to meet market demand as much as possible and reduce the attractiveness of scalper tickets. the government and all sectors of society should strengthen the guidance and education of consumers, advocate the purchase of tickets through formal channels, and jointly maintain a fair market order.