How to avoid fake event tickets in Lagos

Everybody in Lagos knows someone with a fake ticket story. You pay, you dress up, you sit in traffic for two hours, and the person at the gate scans your ticket and shakes their head. The money is gone, and so is the night.

Most of these stories start the same way: a ticket bought from a stranger, paid for by bank transfer, delivered as a screenshot. The good news is that a few habits cut the risk right down, and none of them are complicated.

Buy from the organiser's own link

The safest ticket is one bought straight from the organiser's official page. Before you pay, check the event's Instagram or X account and use the ticket link they post there, not one somebody forwards in a group chat. If the link in your DMs looks even slightly different from the one on the official page, treat that as a no.

Be careful with "my guy has extra tickets" offers close to the date of a big show. Some are genuine. Many are not, and you can't tell the difference from a chat.

Pay a checkout, not a person

A proper checkout takes your card, a bank transfer to a one-time account, or USSD, and sends your ticket the moment the payment goes through. "Send it to my account and I'll send the ticket" puts all the risk on you. If something goes wrong, there is no receipt that means anything and nobody to ask for a refund.

If you really want to buy from someone you know, ask them to transfer the ticket to you through the platform they bought it on, not as a picture.

A screenshot is not a ticket

A screenshot of a QR code can be sent to ten people, and only the first one through the gate gets in. That is how most double-sold tickets happen. A real ticket lives in your account or your email, in your name, and when someone hands one over, it leaves their account and lands in yours.

On Globiqo, every ticket carries a signed QR code that scans once. If someone tries to use a copy after you, the door scanner shows that it has already been used. When a friend sends you a ticket, they transfer it to your email and you claim it in a tap, so their old copy stops working.

Check who is behind the event

A few minutes of checking can save you a lot of pain:

• Has the organiser run events before? Look for photos and videos from past editions, posted by people who were actually there.
• Is there a real venue with an address, or just "location will be shared"?
• Do the prices make sense? A ticket far cheaper than everyone else's for a sold out show is a warning sign, not a bargain.
• Can you reach the organiser some way other than one personal WhatsApp number?

Organisers on Globiqo verify their identity with a government ID such as a NIN or passport, so you know there is a real person behind the events they run.

Sold out? Use resale or the waitlist

Sold out shows are where fake tickets do best, because people get desperate. Before you go hunting on social media, check whether the official platform has a resale option. On Globiqo, organisers can let buyers resell tickets inside the app, at a price the organiser caps, and they can turn on a waitlist so you hear when a ticket frees up. You get a real ticket at a fair price, and the person selling gets paid to their bank.

If it still goes wrong

Keep everything: the chat, the account number, the payment receipt. Report it to your bank as quickly as you can, because banks can sometimes act on fresh reports. Tell the organiser too. They may not be able to let you in, but they need to know someone is using their event to scam people, so they can warn others.

Then tell your friends. Fake ticket sellers rely on people keeping quiet out of embarrassment, and there is nothing embarrassing about being targeted by someone who does this for a living.

The short version

• Buy from the official link.
• Pay through a checkout, never into a personal account.
• Don't accept a screenshot as a ticket.
• Check the organiser before you pay.
• For sold out shows, use official resale and waitlists.

Good nights out should end with stories about the music, not about the gate.