By Aoife Doherty

WHEN Zara McGettigan saw a familiar face selling an Electric Picnic ticket online, she thought her luck was in.

However, her dream was cut short when the ticket sale turned out to be a scam.

Electric Picnic, which takes place at the end of August in Stradbally, is renowned for its annual ticket scramble.

Student Zara was desperate to attend the popular music festival and after a long search for a ticket, she was delighted to see an old acquaintance offering a ticket on social media.

“I had no reason to believe it wasn’t legit,” Zara told the Donegal News.

She had met the person who was selling the ticket when Zara was competing in a beauty pageant last November. Since then, they have been social media friends.

Six weeks ago, Zara saw that her friend was selling a ticket on Instagram. She was weary of accounts being hacked so she ensured she contacted the seller on other platforms too.

Zara explained: “I met her in person and have her on multiple social media platforms.

“I texted her on Snapchat and she confirmed it was her.

“We sent each other voice messages over and back, obviously I have met her in person so I recognised her voice.

“She sent me photos of herself so I knew it was definitely this person.”

Content with the knowledge that she knew the seller, Zara handed over her money, happy to purchase her ticket.

It wasn’t until last weekend when the tickets became transferable that Zara started to get suspicious.

Zara asked for the ticket to be transferred over to her account but the seller refused to do so saying that her Revolut account had been hacked. The seller also insisted the tickets were fake and they had been scammed themselves.

“I wasn’t believing any of it, it wasn’t adding up at all,” Zara said.

After discovering that she had been the victim of a scam she took to social media to share her story.

Since then, many others from across the country have come forward with the exact same story about the seller scamming them.

“I have gotten nearly 100 messages from people saying the same thing happened to them,” Zara said.

“I had everything bought, outfits ordered and time booked off work” she explained.

Zara has contacted the Gardaí who are investigating her case and the claims of others who may have been scammed too.

Fortunately, this has not stopped Zara’s dreams of attending the festival.

“I’m still desperate to go but the tickets are like gold dust,” she remarked.