Learn how ticketing fraud detection works in practice, which metrics matter most, and how to spot payment fraud without creating unnecessary friction for your audience.
Any organisation selling goods or services online runs the risk of experiencing payment fraud – and that’s just as true for arts, culture, live experience organisations. You may not be able to eradicate fraud altogether, but you can do a lot to reduce its impact when fraudsters engage with your organisation. Robust fraud detection is a key part of that work, helping you understand what’s happening in your payment data and respond before problems grow.
We recommend a simple, three-step formula:
- Understanding what ticketing payment fraud looks like.
- Ticketing fraud detection through regular monitoring – you’re in the right place.
- Implementing measures to limit fraud without blocking genuine sales.
The more effectively you can pinpoint fraudulent behaviour – and separate it from legitimate sales – the better you can protect your organisation from losing revenue.
So, what should arts, theatre, and event leaders be looking out for? The answer lies in two key metrics:
- Chargeback rates
- Authorisation rates
Track these two metrics regularly, and – unless there’s any change – you can rest easy. You don’t need to monitor anything else.
Change might be sudden, as strict fraud protection tools block high numbers of transactions, or gradual, as lenient mitigation measures lead to an increase in chargebacks. We recommend glancing at your metrics weekly, and monitoring more closely if you do spot any fluctuation.
If you already use Spektrix Payments, the heavy lifting is done for you. The Spektrix team continually monitors for suspicious activity and uses machine learning to block suspicious transactions. If the team spots a new or increasing concern, they’ll reach out to let you know and work with you to agree next steps.
The goal is always to minimise the impact of fraud, without adding friction for legitimate audience members.
Do you have a payment fraud problem?
There are many different types of payment fraud, as well as wider fraudulent activity in ticketing that doesn’t relate to payment processing.
If you aim to reduce every type of fraud to zero, your first problem is not with fraud – it’s with expectation.
You will never increase your authorisation rate to 100%.
Anything up to about 5% of failed transactions reflects a mixture of honest mistakes – genuine customers entering their details incorrectly, or failing to top up their account before buying – and your tools working correctly to block fake transactions.
You are unlikely to reduce your chargeback rate to 0.
Sadly, a handful of chargebacks are to be expected, representing a mixture of friendly fraud and malicious actors. If you do reach chargeback-zero, it’s almost certain that your authorisation rate will drop significantly, and the lost income will outweigh the costs and effort of fighting chargebacks.
For wider advice on spotting and avoiding ticket scams around live events, see national guidance on ticket fraud from Action Fraud.
Payment fraud benchmarks for live events and culture
To know what good or bad means for your organisation, it’s helpful to understand what normal looks like for other theatres, performing arts centres, or attractions.
That’s where the scale of the Spektrix community can help. In 2025, Spektrix processed 5.2m transactions including tickets, memberships, subscriptions, donations, and more, on behalf of 461 organisations across the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. The number of organisations using Spektrix Payments, combined with years of experience supporting the arts and culture sector, means Spektrix is well positioned to share industry-specific benchmarks.
When should I worry about chargebacks?
Reach out to your payment provider to learn how you can monitor your own chargeback rate. If you’re using Spektrix Payments, relax – monitoring is continuous on your behalf, and the team will reach out if they identify any concerns.
The average chargeback rate for Spektrix Payments users in the US and Canada is 0.07%.
“Acceptable” limits for chargeback rates are defined by card issuers like Visa. In 2025, Visa launched the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Programme (VAMP) to provide a unified programme to monitor and limit high-risk activity – replacing previous, separate dispute and fraud programmes.
In 2026, VAMP is lowering the “acceptable” chargeback rate to 0.5%. While that’s technically the rate it quotes for acquirers like Adyen or WorldPay, those acquirers may pass any fines imposed by Visa on to merchants, for example, you. While direct fines for merchants only start at 1.5%, it’s therefore sensible to aim for a chargeback rate below 0.5%.
Remember that chargebacks can be filed at any time up to 120 days after the initial transaction. That means chargeback reduction is a long game – if you make adjustments to your fraud mitigation strategy, allow time for those changes to influence your data, and don’t worry if there’s a tiny spike that lasts only a day or two.
What to do with this information
- If your chargeback rate is above 0.5%, contact your payment provider for advice.
- If your chargeback rate is increasing, consider implementing additional payment fraud mitigation options, and contact your payment provider for advice so you can decide on the right next steps together. Look for unusual purchase patterns over recent months which might explain the change – for example, high-value purchases made by new international customers – as these can help you identify the most relevant mitigation steps.
- If your chargeback rate is below 0.5% and stable or decreasing, you may well have the right balance between risk and friction. If you’re still concerned, try implementing some low-friction mitigation options like introducing Apple Pay – but be careful to set realistic expectations for your stakeholders. For a broader look at that tradeoff, see payment fraud risk management in ticketing.
When should I worry about authorisation rate?
Reach out to your payment provider to learn how you can monitor your own authorisation rate. If you’re using Spektrix Payments, relax – monitoring is continuous on your behalf, and the team will reach out if they identify any concerns.
The average authorisation rate for Spektrix Payments users is 95%.
Authorisation rates aren’t managed centrally by a programme like VAMP. This ticketing fraud detection measure is more about understanding why some transactions will always be blocked, and what “normal” looks like for your organisation.
If there’s a significant reduction in authorisation rates, the good news is that it will appear in your metrics right away – giving you the heads up you need to investigate and adjust your fraud mitigation options if you find they’re too restrictive.
What to do with this information
- If your authorisation rate reduces suddenly, contact your payment provider for advice. Look for additional measures to explain and help address the change, like multiple failed transactions using different card numbers, but the same billing address. These should appear in your metrics immediately.
- If your authorisation rate is below 90%, we recommend easing some of your fraud mitigation steps – especially if authorisation rates are stable, and chargebacks remain low.
- If your authorisation rate is below 95%, you may consider easing some of your fraud protections – but there’s no urgency to do so, if you’re not hearing customer complaints.
- If your authorisation rate is at or above 95%, it’s likely you’ve got things right. That last 5% is likely to represent a mixture of:
- Human error, as people mistype their card or address details.
- Transactions blocked by audience members’ own banks, either because of insufficient funds or security concerns on their part.
- Your mitigation measures doing what they should, by blocking a small number of fake transactions.
Still not sure what to do for the best?
Get in touch. Whether or not you’re using Spektrix today, the team is happy to share its experience of supporting hundreds of arts, culture, live experience organisations to monitor and reduce payment fraud. Find out more about Spektrix Payments services, and reach out to learn how we could help you balance risk and friction in your own ticketing fraud detection approach.
