Lot has been said and written about counterfeit tickets and ticket fraud. And there's a lot of good advice to be shared in order to avoid paying too much for a ticket - a ticket that may turn out to be fake.

The number one advice we can give is to always buy your tickets from an authorized ticketing provider. Then you will always get your tickets for the right price and you ensure that they are valid.

So please always verify the authenticity of a seller before you buy tickets. You can do that by searching the web for information. Or by checking who is listed as the official ticketing provider in connection with the promotion or marketing of the event you are interested in (for example by visiting the official website for the artist of the event, or the website of the organizer).

We suggest that you stay away from buying tickets through websites such as onlineticketshop.ae, dubizzle.com and viagogo.com where you will often find tickets for sold-out events above face value. Such tickets, sold out from the authorized ticketing provider(s), will often cost 2-10 times more than the official ticket price. Experience shows that you cannot be certain of the authenticity of the tickets, or that you will receive them at all in time for the event. When the official ticketing provider(s) report that the event is sold out, there is a much increased chance that you will get an unpleasant experience if buying tickets via other channels. So if an event is sold out, the best thing you can do is sign up on the waiting list for the event. If a waiting list is not available, keep checking back to see if more tickets are released as the event gets closer. Sometimes additional seats are made available once the production has been finalized.

In addition, it is illegal to sell and distribute tickets throughout middle east.

We also advice against buying tickets from ticketing brokers, third parties and so forth. The fact is that you can never be sure of the validity and authenticity of the tickets in such cases. Note that all tickets are scanned at the door.

So, always buy your tickets from the official ticketing providers - or at the venue.