麻豆约拍

When pop band Steps announced a comeback tour, Alison Evans, from Ton Pentre, took to the internet to find tickets.

She came across a website called Ticket Selection, which she said 鈥榣ooked professional鈥�, and paid 拢140 - twice face value - for two tickets to see the band at Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena.

She waited nine months for the date to arrive, but on the day of the gig the tickets still hadn't been sent.

After contacting the company, Ticket Selection promised the tickets could be emailed, so she set off to Birmingham for the concert.

But an hour before Steps took to the stage she received bad news.

鈥淚 received an email saying more or less we're sorry to tell you that we have been let down by the ticket supplier and there are no tickets for the concert,鈥� she explained.

The company did promise her a refund within 28 days 鈥� but Alison says two months later she is still waiting.

Alison isn't the only person with a sorry tale to tell.

Sian Thomas bought tickets from Ticket Selection for her son and fifteen year old daughter Bronwen to see Coldplay at Cardiff's principality stadium.

Sian paid 拢600 for four tickets and ten months after the purchase, the day of the concert, there was no sign of the tickets.

After contacting the company, Sian had an email to say they'd be delivered to the venue by a courier called Anthony, and Bronwen was asked to wait outside a branch of Greggs for him.

鈥淚 was trying to phone him and all of them were going straight to answer machine or he was declining the calls,鈥� Bronwen explained.

After four hours of standing in the rain, the group gave up.

Twenty minutes after Coldplay hit the stage, Sian said the courier Anthony called to say he had the tickets. She informed him they were on the train home and was assured she'd get a refund within 28 days. But she says that never happened so she claimed through her credit card company.聽

In the end, Alison and Bronwen both managed to buy tickets from another provider 鈥� so they did get to see Steps and Coldplay in concert. But it was no thanks to Ticket Selection.

The company behind the Ticket Selection website is Spain based 442 Events SL.

And when X-Ray took a closer look at the website, some of the ticket sales didn't quite ring true.

The website was offering tickets for the Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker boxing match in Cardiff this March, despite the fact that at the time, the official promoter told us the tickets were not on sale yet and that Ticket Selection weren鈥檛 an official supplier.

There were also tickets for lower tier seats for the Brit Awards in聽London - but the organisers told X-Ray that these were not available to the wider public - and they had instructed Ticket Selection to remove them from their website聽

X-Ray has tried calling, emailing and writing to the company but sadly they haven't got back to us.

Cardiff student Lauren regularly uses online retailer Amazon to order the essential supplies she needs for her course.

Lauren said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 just the easiest go to thing for any textbooks, or stationary or anything that you need.鈥�

Lauren鈥檚 account is linked to her dad Mike鈥檚 credit card. He lives 100 miles away in Aberystwyth.

Mike explained: 鈥淲hile Lauren鈥檚 in university of course we put our credit card information in the Amazon account so that if she wanted any books or things for uni she could use our credit card.鈥�

However, back in November, Lauren received an unusual phone call about her account.

She said: 鈥淭he man on the phone just started saying that they鈥檝e had a suspicious order.鈥�

The phone call was from a hardware company. They told Lauren an order of 拢300 for power tools had been made on her account and that they had received an email, in Lauren鈥檚 name, asking for the tools to be delivered to an address in Essex.

She said: 鈥淚t was the most bizarre feeling ever just to find out someone wants a parcel from my account sent to somewhere completely the opposite end of the country to where I鈥檓 actually from.鈥�

Lauren immediately attempted to log into her Amazon account, but was unable to do so. She soon realised her email account had been accessed by criminals 鈥� and her Amazon password had been changed.

She shut down her email and Amazon accounts, but the damage had already been done. The hackers had managed to order thirteen parcels via Lauren鈥檚 account 鈥� costing over 拢2,000. And the criminals had managed to intercept several of the parcels 鈥� but the rest, including a vacuum cleaner and hair straighteners, started turning up on Mike鈥檚 doorstep in Aberystwyth.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檇 lost over 拢2,000 from our credit card account. We were very annoyed indeed because obviously Christmas time was approaching and it is an expensive time of year.鈥�

The experience has certainly taught Laura about the importance of online security.

She said: 鈥淚鈥檝e changed all my passwords and added all these different characters. And you cannot guess them at all now.鈥�

But despite Mike and Lauren鈥檚 numerous attempts to contact Amazon and return the unwanted goods, no-one got back to them and they were left unhappy with the company鈥檚 customer support.

Mike said: 鈥淲e have emailed Amazon, and we have phoned them and we haven鈥檛 had any response at all.鈥�

Since X-Ray contacted Amazon, they have offered a full apology to Mike and Lauren and sent them a 拢50 gift voucher and two food hampers. They also told them to keep all of the parcels.

Amazon also warned customers to be on their guard for spoof emails which may seem to come from them but are actually from hackers, 'phishing' for your password.

Recent research has showed many of the most commonly used passwords are easily guessed, with 123456 the most commonly used and password the second most common.

The advice on creating a strong password is to make sure it鈥檚 AT LEAST 8 characters long, a mix of lower and upper case letters, number and characters like an exclamation marks. And DON'T use anything too obvious like the names of pets or family members.

Albert and Pam Hall from Beddau, near Pontypridd, decided to downsize from their 2-bed house last year, due to ill health. They found an ideal flat in sheltered accommodation just five minutes down the road.

In early September, with a moving date confirmed, the couple started making arrangements to transfer their phone package to the new place. Albert rang their phone, internet and tv provider Talk Talk about six times before the move, but didn鈥檛 get any response from the company. Moving day came 鈥� but Talk Talk still hadn鈥檛 returned their calls. So, with no landline or internet at their new flat they had to keep visiting Pam鈥檚 daughter鈥檚 house to call them.

In mid-October, over a month after the move, Talk Talk finally admitted they were unable to put a line into the couple鈥檚 new flat and told them to look for a new provider.

Pam said: 鈥淲e really didn鈥檛 want to leave TalkTalk for reasons of having to get used to new equipment etc. But on one of the occasions when Albert rang them the girl actually said to him, 鈥榳e are releasing you from your contract鈥�.鈥�

They were told to send back all the phone and internet equipment. With that done, the couple arranged a new deal with a different company.

As far as Albert and Pam were concerned, the matter was dealt with, but within a few weeks they started getting new bills from TalkTalk.

Struggling to get any sense from TalkTalk over the phone, Pam tried using their online chat service and was assured the situation was resolved - but it wasn鈥檛. They received two more bills after that calls, including one in January asking for 拢179.50.

Both Pam and Albert were adamant they weren鈥檛 going to pay, but then Pam started getting texts from a debt collection agency.

She said: 鈥淲ell I was in floods of tears. We never owed money, we don鈥檛 need to owe money. We don鈥檛 have hire purchase we have nothing鈥�you know no debts, we owe nothing.鈥�

TalkTalk apologised for any inconvenience which they say was caused by a 鈥榬are issue鈥� with their 鈥榟ome move order鈥�. The account balance has been cleared, and TalkTalk have offered Pam and Albert 拢100 in compensation which they are going to give to charity.