Scumbags Scalp Tickets To All-star Aus Charity Concert

It seems nothing will stop an insatiable scalper — not even a charity concert to raise money for a musician with cancer.

As News Limited reports, scalpers have begun to sell on pre-sale tickets to the Playing It Forward benefit show, a concert featuring John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes in support of Noiseworks guitarist Stuart Fraser, who is fighting lung cancer, for astronomical prices.

Viagogo is already flogging tickets — which are originally priced at $160, with proceeds heading to Fraser's medical bills and Olivia Newton-John's Cancer & Wellness Centre — for up to $629 per ticket, as at yesterday afternoon.

Other tickets are going for up to $809 to the one-off Melbourne show.

The show's promoter, Duane McDonald of Regional Touring, has condemned the scalpers and "unethical company" Viagogo in a statement to The Music.

"It is sad to see scalpers take advantage of a charity event. Even worse is that this unethical company (Viagogo) is allowed to trade and give the scalpers a tool to sell through. Our government needs to stamp this out and do so quickly.

"Everyday folk are constantly being ripped off and steered to this site and others through their Google advertising, false claims of being the authorised seller and pressure tactics. Enough is enough," he says.

"With regard to the Benefit show, this is taking things to a whole new level. Selling tickets at these inflated prices and the unassuming customer thinks the money is going to the charity. The official ticketing outlet for this show is Ticketek. We regulate all other industries in this country to protect the consumer, so why can we not move on this issue? Real estate agents, banks, airlines are all fined if they step over the line.

"The industry has enough challenges in the current climate without having consumer confidence battered by the likes of Viagogo."

This is just another notch in the bedpost for Aussie scalpers, who were selling on pre-sale tickets to Ed Sheeran's massive tour for up to $3,500, just minutes after tickets went on sale.

In the UK, scalpers were also selling on tickets to Ariana Grande's hugely publicised One Love Manchester benefit show for up to £400 (about $690).