How to spot a fake: Knights final fever brings out the scammers

Newcastle Knights fans at the preliminary final Vs the Penrith Panthers at Accor Stadium last Sunday. Photo: Jonathan Carroll.

Twenty five years of waiting, and a miraculous finals run, have left fans hungry to secure a seat as the Knights look to make history on Sunday. But the fever has also brought out the scammers.

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A Newcastle mum who walked away from a fake ticket seller has been left fielding calls from strangers after the scammer began handing out her phone number.

Elizabeth Milton, of Newcastle, was hunting for two tickets to Sunday's NRL grand final so she could take her eight-year-old daughter, a lifelong Knights fan, to the club's first decider in 25 years.

Instead, she said she found herself in the middle of one of the many ticket scams circulating as Novocastrians scramble to get to Sydney for the Knights' clash with the Sydney Roosters.

Ms Milton said she responded to a profile claiming to be selling tickets.

But the details did not add up.

"The names and the prices didn't match up," she said.

The seller first offered to email the tickets, but the email that arrived did not carry the same name as the person she had been dealing with.

A link in the message also looked wrong.

She told him it had never arrived.

He then claimed there was a problem with Ticketmaster, the only authorised ticketing provider and resale platform for the grand final.

When she asked him to send proof of the tickets, he refused.

Stephanie Bourke, front - Knights fans at Finals week 3. Newcastle Knights Vs Penrith Panthers at Accor Stadium, Sydney/Homebush. . Picture by Jonathan Carroll

"I said don't worry about it, I'm not buying them," she said.

She had checked Ticketmaster's instructions for transferring tickets, which show they should arrive directly in the buyer's Ticketmaster account, not by email.

Ms Milton thought that was the end of it.

At 7am the next day her phone rang.

A woman was calling to buy tickets from her.

"I said I'm really sorry, but I don't have any tickets," she said.

"Your number's been given out, claiming that you have tickets."

By the time she spoke to the Newcastle Herald, about six or seven people had contacted her, and she expected more before the week was out.

She has since posted a warning on social media telling people that any seller quoting her number was running a scam.

She said she confronted the person and he went quiet.

"Buying tickets off marketplaces, nine times out of 10 it's a scam," she said.

"It's really hard to tell sometimes, because they looked legit."

She said she was grateful no money changed hands, and was "learning from past mistakes".

The scam warnings come as many Knights fans are already frustrated by the grand final ticket process.

The NRL says its allocation for the game has been exhausted, and that tickets bought from unauthorised sellers may not be valid and could result in denied entry.

The Knights, who climbed from last place in 2025 to reach their first grand final since 2001, meet the Roosters at Accor Stadium on Sunday at 7.30pm.

Ms Milton is still looking for tickets, but said she would buy only through Ticketmaster.

"I just really hope the Knights get up over the weekend," she said.

The home of the Knights will be packed with a cast of thousands, as the state government opens McDonald Jones Stadium for Sunday's grand final.

Gates will open at 3.30pm, with the NRLW grand final between the Roosters and Broncos broadcast live on the big screens, before the Knights take on the Roosters in the teams' first NRL grand final clash.

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