Ticket scammers target Swifties ahead of Oz gigs

Australian Taylor Swift fans have lost in excess of A$260,000 (€157,000) in a fake ticket scam for the star’s upcoming concerts in the country.

Swift will perform seven shows in Australia this month, with three nights at Melbourne Cricket Ground (16-18 February) followed by four dates at Sydney’s Accor Stadium (23-26 February). More than four million users attempted to buy pre-sale tickets for the shows last June.

Victoria Police say they have received at least 250 reports of ticketing scams for The Eras Tour since the dates went on sale, including 40 complaints since 30 January this year.

A common tactic has seen scammers hack social media accounts and then use the profiles to sell fake tickets to the victim’s friends. The scammers advertise their tickets “at cost price”, with a story behind why they can no longer attend, and may rush interested parties into buying the tickets and transferring them money.

“As well as the ticket price, they’ll likely ask you to pay the extra fees to change the name on the ticket,” say detectives from the cybercrime squad. “They will often send what they purport to be a screenshot of the email confirmation of having bought the tickets, making the scam look more legitimate. Then, once you’ve transferred the money… the profile will block you.”

“Keep your side of the street clean and protect yourself. Only buy tickets from an authorised reseller”

Det Sgt John Cheyne of Victoria Police’s cybercrime squad warns Swifties: “We know you’re often too in love to think straight when it comes to nabbing a ticket to the Eras Tour, but please, keep your side of the street clean and protect yourself. Only buy tickets from an authorised reseller.”

Swift wraps up a four-night run at Japan’s Tokyo Dome tomorrow (10 February) on the latest stop of her record-breaking world tour.

In December 2023, Eras officially became the first tour in history to surpass $1 billion in revenue, and is projected to generate another $1bn at the box office this year,

It was revealed earlier this week that The Eras Tour concert film is arriving on Disney + globally on 15 March, with five additional songs. The streaming service will make available ‘Taylor’s Version’ of the film, which includes the performance of ‘Cardigan’ and four acoustic songs that were cut out of the theatrical release.

In January, The Eras Tour concert film became the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history with more than US$261.6 million earned globally.

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