Adele fans beware; fraudsters are likely to start selling fake online tickets to her upcoming show at the O2.

Victims have lost more than £1.2 million to ticket fraud in the last six months with nearly 3,000 cases reported to Action Fraud between May and October. On average, customers who bought fake tickets lost £444 per transaction.

Christmas is a favourite time of year for fraudsters and to make sure you don’t get conned out of Christmas we are urging people to avoid buying fake tickets by only purchasing only from official sources, and never paying by direct transfer.

In addition follow our advice to protect yourself:

• Avoid purchasing tickets if they do not include the block, row, and seat details. Without these details there is no way to determine if the tickets exist or not.
• Always check with the event organiser for official ticket distribution lists and never buy from unauthorised sources, particularly though social networks such as Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Pay for tickets by credit card – the card issuer is jointly liable for a failure for goods or services to be provided as long as the price of a single ticket is over than £100.
• Only make purchase from sites encrypted for payment. Look for the closed padlock and the web address in the browser should begin “https”.
• Be aware that fraudsters often employ Search Engine Optimisers (SEO’s) to give them false positive feedback and often copy Terms and Conditions from legitimate ticket sellers’ websites.

To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use their online fraud reporting tool.

You can now also sign up for free to Action Fraud Alert to receive direct, verified, accurate information about scams and fraud in your area by email, recorded voice and text message.