Offer of help for $1k Ed Sheeran tickets

Leah Harper of Dunedin with her daughter (not to be named) who bought Ed Sheeran tickets on-line at an inflated price. Photo / Linda Robertson

A man whose young daughter unknowingly racked up $500 online has offered to bail out the Dunedin family stung by Ed Sheeran ticket scalpers.

Dunedin woman Leah Harper revealed her family paid $1223 for three tickets which should have cost $90 each after leaving her 11-year-old daughter in charge of the laptop during Tuesday's Ed Sheeran pre-sale. The youngster had unwittingly clicked on the Viagogo website, an online ticket marketplace where tickets to Sheeran's Dunedin show next March were being resold at inflated prices.

After reading of the family's plight the man, who asked not to be named, contacted the Otago Daily Times offering to help.

The New Zealander, who runs a consulting business in the United States, said his family found out the hard way how easy it was to run up credit card bills online.

Five years ago his daughter, who was 8, was travelling with her mother overseas and spending her free time playing a game offering "in-app purchases" which she did not realise involved real money.

"My wife had a look at it and there was no clear delineation between whether you were using real money or fake money.

"My daughter was 8, she didn't know.

"She was just plodding along having fun with the game. And then it got up to 500 bucks."

After "a lot of phone calls" the family managed to get the money refunded but his daughter felt "really, really guilty".

He said he felt for Harper's daughter and offered to cover the difference between the legitimate ticket price and the inflated price for the Harpers.

"Then they can go and enjoy the concert and not have to worry about it."