This has found its way to me (via facebook strangely) - it's a statement from Endemol regarding fake emails being sent out regarding audience tickets for DOND shows. Thought I'd share it in case anyone here got / gets one of these suspicious emails.

It has come to our attention that members of the public are being sent e-mails purporting to provide an opportunity to obtain Deal or No Deal audience tickets. This has not been authorised by Endemol and is a hoax. We strongly advise you not to respond to any such e-mails and in particular not to disclose any personal information. Endemol will not accept any liability relating to this and/or any unauthorised use of the Deal or No Deal brand.

If you wish to obtain Deal or No Deal audience tickets please e-mail dond_audience@endemoluk.com and a member of the audience team will assist you with availability.

To make sure certain emails from Paintworks are genuine. Check the sender, some emails are personally sent as a mailshot from the research team.

E.g. (Forname.Surname@endemoluk.com)

Seems a bit strange to invent a hoax for tickets that at first glance have a value of, er, nothing - I don't really see the benefit, other than to be extremely annoying.

Anyway, I will not be getting an illegal pirate seat in the audience next week, having booked through the usual method, spoken to a researcher and received an email in the format Travis describes.

(...although I'm now starting to wonder whether that was a researcher at all. I mean, maybe she painstakingly went to the lengths of posing as a DOND researcher, hijacking the endemol email, breaking into the studio offices and going through all the procedure on the phone... all to deny me 2 seats in the audience when I turned up. It's possible... )