Don’t Get Scammed: Buying Burning Man Tickets From Third Parties

Burning Man tickets are being bought and sold pretty regularly by third parties over Craigslist, Facebook and the like right about now.  If you want to buy one, great … just don’t get scammed.  Here’s how:

1. Unless you know and trust the person from whom you’re buying, never purchase tickets without physically seeing them in person (at least a photograph of the ticket, showing the number on the back).  Do not wire money to anybody without having seen the tickets, even if they tell you the ticket number from the back, and you’ve checked that number with the Burning Man ticketing team (here’s how to do that).  There are criminals who are scraping legitimate numbers off the internet, and using those to sell tickets they don’t have, and won’t be sending you.
2. When you have the ticket in front of you, examine it and look for silver reflective foil elements on both sides of the ticket, and detailed embossing on the brain/tree image.  If you don’t see these things, the ticket is a fake.
3. Alternatively, you can safely buy somebody’s ticket if they’re being held at Will Call, by arranging to change the name under which they’re being held.  Information about how to do this can be found on our Ticket FAQ.

If you are scammed, you should contact your local authorities and let them know you were a victim of mail fraud.  Burning Man will neither refund your money, nor accept or replace a counterfeit ticket you’ve purchased, so be careful!

If you know of a particular scam happening, email us at partiserv@burningman.com so we can be aware of it.  Our Ticket FAQ has more information about buying third party tickets.