Hi!
I have brought passes from people on reddit before. All (5) but one transaction were legit. Here are some tips from experience.
Always make the transaction through paypal! You can verify their email address: https://www.paypal.com/verified/[email protected] Replace their with there email address and paypal will give you info if it is verified or not and when the account was created. Obviously if the account was created one week ago then there is something suspicious.
Always get proof from them that they have the tickets. Have them provide a photo with the passes along with a there username on a piece of paper. Never make a transaction if they don't have the tickets; from experience the only time in which I paid money but never got the tickets was because I never asked for a photo and that was the first time I brought a pass on reddit.
Check there reddit account to see when the account was created and check points and how active it is. This rule can be bended if they are new to reddit but usually if they have a active reddit account it is a good sign.
Always have them ship priority mail usps so you have tracking number so you know at all time where your product. This rule can be excused if the three rules above are good enough for you but if the seller doesn't want to pay for priority mail, I myself offer to pay for it.
Now if you follow all four rules, you are guarantee to get your tickets and there won't be any problems!
But what happens if I never received my tickets and they never shipped it? If you followed rule #1; then report it to paypal provide the details of your case and paypal will freeze their paypal account until they respond. If they claimed they have shipped it and never sent a tracking number to you, you should escalate the claim and paypal will take care of it. Just provide proof and most of the time paypal will refund your money and go after the scammer.
Hope this helps.
Thanks! I'll keep this in mind. I hadn't thought about NFC, but I do have NFC TagInfo on my android phone. I'll see if anything pops up too. If you happen to have a way of testing a real one too, I'd be happy to have more info to cross-reference.