---
title: "How do you keep touts and bots off your tickets? | Ticket Fairy Guides"
description: "Cap how many tickets one buyer can take, ask buyers to prove who they are before the ticket is issued, put returned tickets back on sale at the price you set, and offer a waiting list to the fans who missed out."
canonical: "https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/keep-touts-off-your-tickets"
---

1. [Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/)
2. [Guides](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides)
3. How do you keep touts and bots off your tickets?

Solving event ticketing problems

# How do you keep touts and bots off your tickets?

No single setting stops touting. For a high-demand on-sale, you cap how many tickets one buyer can take, ask for an identity check before the ticket is issued, put returned tickets back on sale at the price you set, and offer a waiting list to the fans who missed out. Together those controls keep the tickets with the fans who wanted them rather than a resale site.

Takes:  7 minutes

No single setting stops touting, so use several together. Cap how many tickets one basket can hold and how many one customer account can buy across every order, and buying fifty in one go stops being worth the trouble.

On your highest-demand tickets, ask buyers to prove who they are before the ticket is issued. We hold the money rather than take it until they do, so a bulk buyer who can't prove who they are never gets the tickets in the first place.

Then control what happens to a ticket a buyer cannot use. Returns come back to you and go out again at the price you set, and we offer them to the people waiting, in order, which is what keeps fans off resale sites altogether.

## How Ticket Fairy helps

- ### A cap on what one buyer can take

  Cap the tickets one basket can hold and the tickets one customer account can buy across every order, for the whole event or for a single ticket type, so no one can take a block and resell it.
- ### [Proof of who is buying](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/verify-buyer-identity-at-checkout)

  Ask for an identity check before the ticket is issued, and we hold the money rather than take it until the buyer passes.
- ### [A returned ticket that stays at face value](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/group-your-tickets-into-categories)

  A ticket that comes back goes out again at the price you set. Where you run ticket categories, the category's resale type decides which ticket type it comes back as, so keep different entry times in separate categories.
- ### [Somewhere for the people who missed out](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-a-waiting-list)

  A waiting list offers returned tickets to fans in order, so a fan who missed out has a reason to wait rather than go to a resale site.
- ### [An on-sale only your fans reach](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/make-an-event-invitation-only)

  Run the sale by invitation, by presale code or behind a password, so your tickets are never on a public page for a bot to find.
- ### [A queue instead of a scramble](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/keep-a-high-demand-on-sale-running-smoothly)

  A waiting room in front of checkout moves your buyers through in turn, so refreshing the page over and over doesn't get anyone ahead.

## Set it up

- [Cap what one buyer can take](#step-1)
- [Set the anti-scalping rules](#step-2)
- [Ask the buyer to prove who they are](#step-3)
- [Send returns to the people waiting](#step-4)
- [Watch who is actually waiting](#step-5)
- [Keep the stock away from a public page](#step-6)

## Before you start

- You're an owner or an admin on the event.
- You know your ticket types and roughly how much demand to expect. The limits you set depend on both.

1. ## Cap what one buyer can take

   Open your event, select **Tickets**, then **Settings**, and set the **Maximum number of tickets per order** and the **Maximum ticket quantity per account**.

   **Note:** The per-account field appears once **Set custom maximum quantity per account** is on. Per order caps one basket, and per account caps one customer across every order they place, up to 20.

   ![The Ticket Settings card with the maximum tickets per order set to 6, Set custom maximum quantity per account on, and the maximum per account set to 4](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-ticket-settings--purchase-limits.png)    
   *Event, Tickets, Settings.*
2. ## Set the anti-scalping rules

   On the same page, open **Anti-Scalping/Fraud Settings** and select **Settings**. Turn on **Names required** to collect a name for every ticket, **Name checks** to have the door check those names, and **ID required** to ask attendees for ID at the door.

   **Note:** **Ticket resale** and **Add-on resale** decide whether a buyer can pass a ticket or an add-on on through Ticket Fairy. Leave ticket resale on if you want returns to come back to you at your price rather than go to a resale site.

   ![The Anti-Scalping/Fraud Settings dialog, with names required, name checks, ID required, ticket resale and add-on resale all turned on](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-settings--anti-scalping.png)    
   *Tickets, Settings, Anti-Scalping/Fraud Settings.*
3. ## Ask the buyer to prove who they are

   Follow [Turn on the buyer ID check](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/verify-buyer-identity-at-checkout#follow-up-2) to require buyers to prove who they are across your event.

   **Note:** Once it is on, buyers finish checkout and their card is held rather than charged until they pass. Orders waiting on a check appear on the **Needs Verification** tab under **Orders**.

   ![The orders waiting on an identity check, with the hold on each one](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-orders--needs-verification.png)    
   *Orders, Needs Verification.*
4. ## Send returns to the people waiting

   Back on **Tickets**, then **Settings**, turn on **Enable waiting list after ticket sell-out**.

   **Note:** Every ticket that comes back is then offered to the next person waiting for that ticket type, at the price you set. A fan who knows they may be offered a ticket at the original price has no reason to pay a tout.

   ![The Ticket Settings form with the waiting list switches for tickets and add-ons turned on](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-waiting-list--settings.png)    
   *Tickets, Settings.*
5. ## Watch who is actually waiting

   Open **Performance** and select **Waiting List** once a ticket type has sold out.

   **Note:** The number of people waiting tells you how much demand you did not serve, and the list shows who to offer the next release to.

   ![The waiting list of an event, with the people waiting for each ticket type](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-waiting-list--report.png)    
   *Performance, Waiting List.*
6. ## Keep the stock away from a public page

   Run the on-sale by invitation, presale code or password where demand is highest.

   **Note:** If a bot can't reach your tickets, it can't buy them.

   ![The Event Settings with Invitation required to attend enabled](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-settings--invitation-required.png)    
   *Event Settings, Invitation required to attend.*

## Or have it done for you

Fai, your AI teammate, can check sales, update your event or change a ticket when you ask.

Fai reads how the controls are set, and can change the per-order and per-account limits, the anti-scalping settings, the buyer ID check and the waiting list for you. She asks you before she saves anything that changes what buyers can do.

### In your dashboard, with Fai

```
For <EVENT NAME>, what are the limits per order and per account, and is ticket resale allowed?
```

### From your own assistant, over MCP

Connect your assistant to [our MCP server](https://www.ticketfairy.com/mcp-server) and ask it:

Keep `--read-only` in your MCP configuration. This task only reads data, so your assistant does not need tools that make changes.

```
Find my event <EVENT NAME> and show its ticket settings
```

## Questions you might have

**Does a per-buyer limit really stop bulk buying?**

 It raises the cost of it. The per-account cap holds across every order one customer places, so a tout has to find a new account and a new payment method for every few tickets, and with the identity check, they would need a new identity too.

**What happens to a ticket a buyer cannot use?**

 With **Ticket resale** on, it comes back to you and is offered again at the price you set. With the waiting list on, the next person waiting for that ticket type is offered it rather than the open market, and the person who returned it receives the face value less any resale fee.

**Does the identity check slow my on-sale down?**

 Buyers finish checkout as normal and the money is held rather than taken while the check runs. Ask for it on the ticket types under pressure rather than all of them.

**Can I stop resale on my event altogether?**

 On Ticket Fairy, yes: turn **Ticket resale** off in the anti-scalping settings and no buyer can pass a ticket on through Ticket Fairy. Leaving it on and holding the price at face value is the other way to handle it, because a buyer with no way to return a ticket they cannot use goes to a resale site. No ticketing platform controls what a third-party site lists, which is why the waiting list matters as much as the limits.

**Which of these should a first-time festival turn on?**

 The per-order and per-account limits and the waiting list, on every event. Ask for the identity check when a show sells out in minutes, and run the on-sale by invitation when you already have the list.

## Still have a question?

Book a demo and we will answer it on a call, on your kind of event. Or create your account and see it for yourself.

   [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome)

No setup fees. No monthly fee. No credit card required.

## Related guides

- [More ways to use Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/festivals)
- [Run a waiting list for a sold-out event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-a-waiting-list)
- [Let buyers resell their tickets at face value](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-buyers-resell-their-tickets-at-face-value)
- [Clear the ticket orders waiting on an ID check](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/verify-buyer-identity-at-checkout)
- [Make your event invitation-only](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/make-an-event-invitation-only)
- [How do you keep a high-demand on-sale running smoothly?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/keep-a-high-demand-on-sale-running-smoothly)
- [How do you manage many events without repeating the same work?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-many-events-on-one-platform)
- [Every Ticket Fairy guide](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides)

## Do this on your own event

Create your account, build your event and follow the steps in your own dashboard. You do not need to book a sales call.

  [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome) [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo)

## Sell tickets with Ticket Fairy

Start free with unlimited events and no monthly fee, and choose a paid plan when you need more.

- Set up your event in minutes
- Free events are free
- Fai, your AI teammate, is built in

 [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome)

No setup fees. No monthly fee. No credit card required.

## See it on a call

Book a demo and we will show you how Ticket Fairy handles your kind of event.

 [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [More ways to use Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/festivals)

### Tips for selling more tickets

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---

This page is on Ticket Fairy, a ticketing, marketing and operations platform for live events and the venues that host them: festivals, club nights, concerts, conferences and tours, and night clubs, beach clubs and concert venues. It grows revenue with fan rewards that turn an audience into a sales channel, and runs the money side with payments and payouts, Vault business banking, and working capital advanced against ticket sales. [How Ticket Fairy ticketing works](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing) · [Ticket Fairy for AI assistants](https://www.ticketfairy.com/llms.txt)