Why can scalpers always get tickets but I can’t?

Audit expert: Zheng Yuanpan, professor at Zhengzhou University of Light Industry

Did you grab this year's Dragon Year commemorative coins? 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. As a totem in traditional Chinese culture, the dragon has made people enthusiastic about collecting Dragon Year commemorative coins and banknotes.
At 10 pm on January 3, the reservation for the Dragon Year commemorative coins was officially opened. According to the previous announcement of the central bank, the limit for each person to reserve and exchange commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes is 20 pieces and 20 sheets respectively. However, before many friends reached the reservation interface, the commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes were already sold out.

Everyone is scrambling to get the "dragon", but very few people can get it. On the contrary, many dragon year commemorative coins and banknotes are sold at high prices on a second-hand platform, and the number of sales exceeds the central bank's limit. Obviously, scalpers are one step ahead of us!

Source: Screenshot of a shopping website/Author

The world has long suffered from scalpers. Whether it is concert tickets, tickets to popular attractions, hospital registrations or tickets for the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, there are scalpers behind them. People who need tickets cannot get tickets, while expensive "scalper tickets" are available. These scalpers obtain limited resources through illegal means and resell them at prices higher than the market price, making huge profits and disrupting the market order.

The ongoing Spring Festival travel rush is the final battle of scalpers before the New Year. With the help of various ticket-grabbing equipment, ordinary people cannot compete with these "technical scalpers" and are forced to buy tickets from them at high prices. What high-tech means do scalpers use? Why are they so good at grabbing tickets?

How do “technical scalpers” grab tickets?

Unlike traditional scalpers who mainly conduct offline transactions, rely on relationships to hoard tickets and then sell them at high prices, "technical scalpers" keep up with technological trends and use technical means to grab tickets and trade online.

We have to admit that these "technical scalpers" are quite skilled in grabbing tickets, and they have come up with a variety of ways to grab tickets. One of the most basic ways is to spend money to rent servers and other equipment and facilities from well-known domestic operators, which makes their ticket grabbing network speed significantly higher than the general network speed. Therefore, while we are still slowly refreshing, the scalpers have already snapped up all the tickets in a few seconds.

Source: Internet pictures

In addition, "technical scalpers" use automated software or self-designed plug-in programs to complete multiple ticket purchase requests in an instant. This software can not only quickly fill in ticket purchase information but also simulate multiple accounts to operate at the same time, greatly improving the efficiency of ticket purchase. However, this deprives other normal users of fair ticket purchase opportunities. For example, the news once reported that a "technical scalper" named Chen used his own "crawler" software to achieve 0-second ticket grabbing for "customers" on a certain ticket purchase platform, causing serious interference to the normal ticket purchase order.

However, grabbing tickets is just a basic operation. Scalpers put more energy into developing powerful ticket grabbing software. Scalpers will charge customer service fees and use technical means to intercept other people's refund, exchange, and ticket replacement information to achieve the purpose of grabbing tickets. These ticket grabbing software can also be directly purchased or rented, providing a "convenient" cheating method for those who need to buy tickets.

High-speed railway station interior source丨Editor

Finally, many scalpers will hire "real people to take photos" on a large scale to grab tickets on official ticketing platforms and reserve a large number of tickets. If they encounter a show or a popular concert with a high real-name registration requirement, scalpers may collect a deposit from consumers in advance, and consumers will provide personal identity information to scalpers, but this can easily lead to personal information leakage.

"Technical scalpers" use all kinds of tricks, but official platforms have been chasing and blocking them. In this war without the smoke of gunpowder, who will come out on top?

“Technical scalpers” PK official, who wins?

In order to protect the rights and interests of users, the official platform is also racking its brains to fight scalpers. Do you still remember the high-difficulty picture verification code launched by the 12306 official platform? In recent years, the verification code recognition difficulty of the official ticket purchase platform has become increasingly higher.

CAPTCHAs are designed to prevent abuse by automated programs or scripts . Although these CAPTCHAs are somewhat complex and difficult for ordinary consumers to understand, they still cannot stop scalpers. Many ticket grabbing programs have built-in algorithms that can automatically recognize CAPTCHAs, and their accuracy is gradually improving with the development of machine learning technology. At the same time, third-party coding platforms help crack complex CAPTCHAs, allowing scalpers to continue to swipe tickets.

Source: Verification code from a ticket purchasing platform

In addition to verification codes, official platforms also implement real-name ticket purchases and limit the number of tickets an individual can purchase . For example, 12306 has introduced a series of measures, including identity information authentication and the inability to purchase tickets due to itinerary conflicts, to reduce the space for scalpers to hoard tickets.

Faced with the real-name system for ticket purchases, scalpers can be said to be more skilled than the devil. They lock in a large number of tickets by purchasing ID card information online or by using ID cards borrowed from family members, friends, etc. When customers come to the door, they will quickly return the ticket and then use the customer's real information to buy the ticket. However, with the 12306 blocking of ticket grabbing software and plug-ins and the launch of the "standby ticket purchase" service in 2019, the scalper's business has been hit to a certain extent. At the same time, the police have stepped up tracking and investigation of abnormal ticket purchase accounts and IP addresses, and have successfully eliminated many gangs.

Beijing Station Source丨Editor

At present, due to increasingly strict supervision, it is becoming increasingly difficult for scalpers to grab tickets, and some scalpers have even begun to turn to fraudulent activities. They provide so-called "grabbing on behalf of" services on the Internet platform, and then flee after deceiving the victims to pay the deposit and ticket price. However, even with the risk of being deceived, when buying tickets becomes a big problem, many people still seek help from scalpers. Therefore, the battle between scalpers and the authorities is still escalating.

How to improve the success rate of ticket purchase?

Improving the success rate of ordinary people buying tickets requires efforts from both the official and individual sides. First, the official should strengthen network monitoring, proactively respond to abnormal ticket purchases, investigate reports from the public, and reduce the living space of online scalpers. Second, the official ticketing platform should further improve the real-name ticket purchase measures and strictly control the ticket source, such as limiting the number of purchases and refunds for the same account, and at the same time, technically block plug-in software, so that scalpers have nowhere to start.

On the personal side, you should pay attention to using the official ticket purchasing platform or application when purchasing tickets, make sure to log in in advance, save payment information and set reminders so that you can quickly lock in tickets when they go on sale. At the same time, do not easily believe in tickets that are lower than the market price, be vigilant and prevent being deceived by scalpers. Finally, you must also protect your personal information and purchase tickets safely and scientifically. I hope everyone can successfully buy the appropriate round-trip tickets they need for the Spring Festival travel rush.