Millions of Britons who plan to visit concerts, theatres, festivals and exhibitions over the summer have been warned that sham websites and ticket touts are on the increase.

Consumer Direct, the watchdog, received a record 11,000 complaints about event tickets last year — up from only 1,000 the year before. And, as thousands of unfortunate Michael Jackson fans have discovered, if something goes wrong after buying tickets from a dodgy dealer you can be left seriously out of pocket.

As the number of ticket agents, legitimate or not, has grown, buying event tickets has become a minefield for consumers. Here we explain how to avoid the touts and find the cheapest deals.

Ticket scams and fake websites

In November police closed down Xclusive’s website after it had failed to supply at least 4,000 tickets for the Beijing Olympics, music festivals and football matches. The website, like dozens of others still in operation, was a scam.

Jonathan Brown, of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (Star) says: “These sorts of online operations are out there all year round, offering tickets for concerts and shows at highly inflated prices, or selling tickets that might not even exist.

“It is very easy to create a website that looks classy and reputable — but it does not mean that it’s law-abiding or will definitely supply you with what you think you are buying.”

Times Money reader Jeremy Blythe, from Bristol, lost £350 after using theonlineticketshop.com to buy tickets to see Oasis at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on June 12. The tickets never arrived, and after the money was taken from his account nobody from the website responded to his numerous calls and e-mails. “The website looked very professional,” he says.

There are ways to spot a fake website, however. Googling the website may highlight warnings on consumer forums. You should also avoid sites with no postal address or a phone number that nobody picks up.

The best way to find a reputable ticket seller is to go directly to the venue’s website. If you wanted to see Bruce Springsteen, pictured, at Hyde Park last week, for example, you would not simply search for “Bruce Springsteen Hyde Park tickets”, as this will bring up scam websites. The Hyde Park website, at royalparks.org.uk, directs fans to its authorised agent, as does the Millennium Stadium site (millenniumstadium.com). If you are planning to buy theatre tickets and are unsure about a venue, there is a helpful list at officiallondontheatre.co.uk.

To be extra sure, check that the ticket agent is a member of Star. This ensures that you have an independent means of redress if anything goes wrong. Members include Encore Tickets, TKTS, lovetheatre.com, lastminute.com, The Ticket Factory, Ticketmaster, Live Nation, SECXtra and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. You can check that an agent is a member of Star online at s-t-a-r.org.uk or by calling 0870 6039011.

Finding the cheapest deal

Even if you go to a legitimate ticket seller, it is difficult to know how to find the cheapest deal. It means that the person sitting next to you on the night could have paid only a third of the cost of your ticket.

A comparison website, such as seatchoice.com, searches box offices and about 20 ticket agents, such as Encore and Ticketmaster, as well as resale agents, such as Seatwave and Viagogo, to find the cheapest ticket.

The results can vary hugely — a search for Blood Brothers, for example, showed one agent with seats with a face value of £52.50 discounted to only £20 each with no booking fee. The same seats offered by another agent for the same performance cost the full face value of £52.50 each and there was a booking fee of £4.55 per ticket.

Booking fees of up to £15 per ticket are not uncommon and are a big gripe for consumers. A search at Seatchoice for Sister Act, the musical, showed most tickets were £60 each. But while one agent did not charge a booking fee, another charged £13.50 per ticket.

Jonathan Brown, of Star, says: “There is no limit on how much an agent can charge in booking fees. The fee an agent charges varies depending on the show and the date of sale. Sometimes it will be a percentage of the ticket cost, sometimes a flat fee. If someone buys a ticket in person at the box office, there should be no booking fee.”

The most vulnerable fans are those looking for tickets at an event that has sold out. Online auction and classified sites may sell hard-to-find tickets, albeit at vastly inflated prices, but consumers have very little protection if something goes wrong.

On eBay, for example, you have no protection unless you buy through PayPal. An eBay spokesman says: “Those buyers purchasing tickets on eBay using PayPal are covered for the full price of the ticket on the rare occasion that anything goes wrong — as long as a claim is made within 45 days of the transaction.”

A better alternative may be a ticket resale site, such as seatwave.com. This site is an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for live events.

Buyers and sellers never have contact with one another — Seatwave acts as the middleman — but crucially the site guarantees all tickets. If a buyer pays for tickets that never arrive, Seatwave will find replacement tickets or issue a full refund.

If an event is cancelled, buyers will get their money back. Of course, if the ticket you want to buy is in demand, it will be reflected in the price. Tickets for centre court at Wimbledon today were going for £6,361 each.