Fans of K-pop's hottest groups would know how difficult it is to grab concert tickets when they swing by your country, with bots snapping them up.

But perhaps things would be better for Malaysian fans of NCT Dream.

On Sept 4, they took to social media to discuss the new ticketing verification process for the group's upcoming Kuala Lumpur concert, organised by entertainment company Live Nation.

Sharing screenshots of a timed multiple-choice quiz testing on general knowledge about Malaysia and NCT Dream, a Threads user praised Live Nation for implementing the new measures.

Users are required to answer what Malaysia's national language is, the country's national flower, when Malaysia Day falls on, and the title of NCT Dream's debut single — something a real fan must surely know.

"Live Nation, you are still awesome!" they said.

A ticket-holder agreed: "It was one of the smoothest ticketing processes I've had so far. Live Nation is setting the standard for all ticketing services."

According to other online posts, there's also a puzzle featuring an image of the iconic National Monument that users have to rearrange to the correct order.

In recent months, Malaysian fans of K-pop star G-Dragon were upset when tickets to his Ubermensch concerts in Kuala Lumpur sold out almost instantly.

Fans claimed that Malaysians were not able to purchase tickets to the two sold-out shows, with many of the tickets going to foreigners. When G-Dragon spoke Malay at the concerts, many attendees reportedly didn't understand what he was saying.

According to an article published on June 1 by Malaysian publication The Star, there were over 600 million thwarted attempts by ticket bots and scalpers during ticketing sales.

NCT Dream fans further shared their thoughts on the security behind Live Nation's new, enhanced verification features.

An X user noted: "This means each day of ticket sales is different, because I got the national flower question! Good job Live Nation. Next, can you do the questions in Malay and in short form so that there's extra security?"

Another suggested: "This is how we prioritise local concert-goers! There's no issue if foreigners want to buy tickets too, but maybe we could set certain dates for those with local IDs and foreign IDs if it's possible."

"But questions like these are too easy - you can find them (the answers) on the internet. The puzzles are the difficult ones," critiqued another.

Other existing forms of Captcha (a computer programme intended to distinguish human from machine input) include typing distorted text and numbers, matching images with specific objects and interactive challenges like puzzles or simple math problems.

According to an article by Malay Mail on June 9, the Malaysian government is in talks to enact an anti-scalping law with the rise of concert ticket sales incidents sparked by bots and scalpers.

AsiaOne understands that Live Nation Singapore currently employs Captchas with distorted text and numbers in its ticketing verification system.

We have reached out to Live Nation Malaysia and Singapore for comment.

[[nid:722138]]

kristy.chua@asiaone.com

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.