Ticket Security: Why Your Electronic Delivery Method Matters

The best way to fight ticket fraud and unauthorized resale is to prevent it. Here’s why more secure electronic delivery options like rotating digital codes and contactless (NFC) tickets are your best choices when the stakes are high.

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Ticket fraud isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a major issue that affects both fans and event organizers. Outdated delivery methods like PDFs and static digital codes risk being easily copied and resold by scammers, leaving fans stuck outside the venue and bottlenecks at the door when tickets won’t scan. Organizers end up dealing with a wave of chargebacks, complaints, and reputational damage in the aftermath.

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The fix? Smarter, more secure ticket delivery. Modern electronic delivery methods are designed to prevent copying and tampering, helping organizers reduce fraud at the source while giving fans confidence that their ticket is real and guaranteed to work.

Understanding Ticket Delivery Methods and Security Tradeoffs

There are many choices for ticket delivery, and each comes with its own balance of convenience, security, and operational complexity. The right method often depends on your audience, event format, demand, and access control infrastructure. However, not all delivery options offer the same level of protection, and some carry meaningful fraud and entry risks.

Shipping: Physical tickets or wristbands mailed to fans. 

• Pros: Tangible keepsakes that build anticipation, reduce onsite pickup lines, and are helpful for guests without smartphones.
• Cons: While tangible, they can easily be lost, stolen, or delayed, posing security and logistical challenges. And if a fan buys a chip-enabled wristband second-hand, there’s no reliable way to know whether it’s already been deactivated.

Will Call: Attendees collect their tickets at the venue's box office.

• Pros: Reduces fraud by verifying the purchaser’s ID against the name on the order.
• Cons: Additional staffing and longer queues during peak arrival windows as manual verification requires more time spent per guest.

Print-at-Home (PDF Tickets): Tickets emailed as PDF attachments for fans to print.

• Pros: Easily printed by guests without smartphones or pulled up on a mobile device with no account sign-in required.
• Cons: High risk of being copied, shared, or resold off-platform.

Static Digital Code: Tickets with a barcode or QR code, designed to be scanned from a mobile device. 

• Pros: Eco-friendly, flexible, and convenient. Can be added to native Apple/Google wallet.
• Cons: Vulnerable to screenshots and unauthorized sharing. Risky if purchased second-hand.

Rotating Digital Code: Tickets with a dynamic barcode or QR code that refresh periodically, designed to be scanned from a mobile device.

• Pros: Eco-friendly and tamper-proof. Screenshots won’t scan.
• Cons: None!

Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication): Encrypted, tap-to-enter digital tickets that live within a fan’s digital wallet. 

• Pros: Frictionless entry. Bound to a fan’s mobile device, stored in native Apple/Google wallet with no code to screenshot or share, making tickets extremely difficult to counterfeit. Supports automatic, real-time push notifications when critical event details change. Works even if the fan’s device is offline.
• Cons: Requires a mobile device and specialized hardware to validate.

How Pairing Rotating Digital Codes and Contactless (NFC) Tickets Eliminates Fraud

By combining rotating digital codes with contactless NFC tickets, organizers create a secure, account-based delivery system that keeps tickets tied to verified fans. Within Tixr, accessing a ticket requires logging into your account, and credentials live within the Tixr app or a fan’s native digital wallet — not as static files that can be freely shared. 

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Because tickets are device-bound or dynamically generated within a live account environment, they can’t be copied, forwarded, or resold outside of Tixr-powered Fan Transfers or in-platform resale (if enabled). Unlike third-party marketplaces where ticket authenticity isn’t guaranteed, transferring within Tixr generates a brand-new code or NFC credential for the recipient, making it impossible to duplicate or resell a ticket outside the system.

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Rotating digital codes and NFC tickets can be enabled directly in Tixr Studio. NFC requires additional hardware readers for validation, but once set up, it provides the most secure and seamless entry experience available.

Why Modern, Secure Ticketing Matters More Than Ever

For both organizers and fans, outdated ticket delivery methods create problems that ripple beyond the gate. For event organizers, ticket fraud leads to chargebacks, customer disputes, and lost revenue. When tickets are easily copied and resold on unauthorized marketplaces, organizers lose control over who actually attends their event. Worse, scalpers inflate prices and resell fake or duplicated tickets, creating chaos at the gate and damaging an event’s reputation.

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For fans, getting scammed on a fake ticket means being denied entry, losing money, and missing out on an experience they were excited for. Security should be a top priority when choosing how tickets are delivered, because the right method can prevent fraud before it happens.

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Event organizers shouldn’t have to worry about fake tickets, and fans shouldn’t have to second-guess their purchase. We’re committed to keeping ticketing secure, modern, and fan-first. 

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