Halloween scarefest events accused of being a scam

A company selling tickets for Halloween "scarefest" events at venues across the UK is being accused of being a scam.

Haloween Nights Fear has listed 10 events across England, Scotland and Wales between 20th October and 1st November, but three hosts say the listings are fake.

Ticket prices range between £14 and £140.

The website, which promises "Halloween events at real UK landmarks - ghost hunts, horror houses and theme-park scarefests", has been described as "convincing" by technology expert David McClelland, but he has told the BBC that he believes it has been created using artificial intelligence - the BBC has contacted the company for comment.

Events have been advertised at sites in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, Leicester, Salford, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Swansea, though Cardiff Castle, Bradgate Park in Leicester, and Transport for London have confirmed three of the events are fake, with the others having not responded.

"The website looks so convincing," McClelland said. "It's one of the most impressive scams I've seen - there's so much content on there.

"Sometimes one of the tells that you might expect from a scam or a fake website is that they're quite shallow - there isn't very much text or there aren't very many pictures.

"But this Halloween Nights Fear website is huge."

"What I think has happened here is that the scammers are employing artificial intelligence to create these sophisticated, impressive looking websites," he continues.

"When you look closely at some of the images on this website, there are some of the tell-tale signs that they are artificial intelligence-generated.

"But when you really start to peel away beneath the covers, it does start to fall apart, but you've really got to know what you're looking at.

"I would think that for the majority of people who come across this website, it shows everything that you would expect to see that tells you that it's real."

Halloween Nights Fear is not registered on Companies House and recently deleted its social media presence.

Leicestershire Trading Standards says the telephone number listed on the website does not work, an address does not appear genuine, and the domain was registered only recently.

"We are taking steps to contact the website operator and have requested that the site is deactivated," a spokesperson said.

"Anyone who has purchased tickets and believes they may have been affected should contact their bank as soon as possible to discuss potential recovery options.

"They can also seek advice from the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133, which shares information with Trading Standards."

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