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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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Man jailed for six years for K-pop ticketing scam

A 30-year-old man has been jailed for six years after swindling K-pop fans out of 595 million won (€413,000) in a concert ticketing scam.

The defendant, identified only by his surname of Kim, was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in South Korea.

Seoul Central District Court heard that Kim pocketed profits from the sale of non-existent tickets for concerts by acts such as Blackpink, Lim Young-woong and IU.

The Korea Herald reports that Kim also obtained loans using the credit cards of his victims based on the information he gathered via the scam.

“The defendant continued to go on scamming his victims even while he was being tried for fraud, and used the profits for gambling and making cryptocurrency investments,” the court was told.

The South Korean music business has been targeted by a number of scams

Kim has appealed the ruling.

A recent survey by the Record Label Industry Association of Korea revealed that 32.8% of 19 to 29-year-olds admitted to buying a ticket from tout at least once, with 20% saying they had spent more than 500,000 won (€347) on a ticket.

The South Korean music business has been targeted by a number of scams. Last year, K-pop giants SM Entertainment and HYBE warned fans about a fake event called Fest World Tour, which falsely advertised that acts such as Enhypen, Mirae, WayV, NCT Dream and Seventeen would be performing at stadiums across Asia.

In addition, the agency representing Young-woong said it cancelled 118 ticket sales for his 19-21 January 2024 shows after discovering that some were being resold at more than 6x face value.

Elsewhere, singer Jang Beom-june voided all tickets bought for his January and February concerts due to touting, opting to hold an online ballot instead.

 


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DG Medios warns of ticket scam ahead of RHCP gigs

Chilean promoter DG Medios has warned Red Hot Chili Peppers fans of a fake ticket scam operating ahead of the band’s Santiago shows later this year.

DF reports the firm has filed a criminal complaint after discovering counterfeit tickets being sold on social networks for the US rockers’ gigs at the 17,000-cap Movistar Arena on 19 and 21 November.

DG has identified the alleged perpetrator, who it claims modified tickets from a previous event and sold them on to multiple third parties. The firm says that an unknown number of fake VIP tickets had been sold for 95,000 pesos (€110) each.

Legitimate tickets for the RHCP shows are priced from 35,000 (€40) to 145,000 (€168) pesos.

The company has issued a statement to customers, advising them the only way to ensure their tickets are genuine is to buy them from official sources.

“We have discovered people deceiving fans and selling fake tickets to DG Medios concerts”

“We have discovered people deceiving fans and selling fake tickets to DG Medios concerts,” tweets the promoter. “Most of the people who carry out this action misuse the tickets and manage to deceive and defraud buyers, such as the [VIP] tickets that are being sold specifically for the Red Hot Chili Peppers show at the Movistar Arena.

“DG Medios has not delivered any ticket within this category, so we affirm that these tickets are false and will not be valid to enter any of the two shows scheduled in November.”

Founded by well known regional promoter Carlos Geniso, Santiago-based DG Medios has promoted shows by acts such as U2, the Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses, Paul McCartney and Justin Bieber. Live Nation acquired a majority stake in the company in 2019.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are represented by CAA’s Emma Banks outside North America, performed at the Hangout Music Festival in the US earlier this month, and have a summer festival slate including Pinkpop (Netherlands), Tinderbox (Denmark), Rock Werchter (Belgium), I-Days (Italy), NOS Live (Portugal) and Mad Cool (Spain). They will also headline stadiums in France, Austria and the UK.

In 2022, RHCP became the first rock band in 17 years to achieve two No.1 US albums in the same year, hitting the top spot with both Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen.

 


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Fugitive teenager arrested over $132k ticket scam

The alleged teenage ringleader of a gang that conned 10,000 fans with fake tickets to shows by Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee in Peru has been arrested in Spain.

Pamela Cabanillas, 19, is accused of leading a group of scammers known as “The QR Gang” that allegedly set up a cloned website of Peru-based ticket outlet, Teleticket, and sold tickets for up to US$390 between May and October last year. She is thought to have made at least US$132,000 through the scam.

According to the Daily Mail, her network sold 7,000 bogus tickets for Daddy Yankee’s two shows at Peru’s National Stadium in Lima from 18-19 October last year and a further 3,000 for Bad Bunny’s 13 November date at the same venue. Scores of customers were denied entry when their tickets were found to be duplicates.

“We have arrested her and transferred her to the police station to continue with all the necessary steps to carry out the extradition to Peru”

Cabanillas, was arrested by police last week and has been charged with five offences, including identity theft, aggravated fraud and falsification of private documents. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in jail.

Cabanillas evaded authorities for weeks before being tracked down in Carabanchel, Madrid.

“After a discreet follow-up by the Spanish police, we have been able to intercept her, we have identified her and we have verified that her identity was the one that appears in the international [arrest warrant],” Spain’s police inspector Vanessa Arriera tells Infobae. “We have arrested her and transferred her to the police station to continue with all the necessary steps to carry out the extradition to Peru.”

 


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