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‘Don’t be fooled by low price’: Victims lose $1,500 to conmen over Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift tickets

2024-02-28 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE - Two pop music fans who had their hearts set on watching their favourite artists perform live ended up losing nearly $1,500 to online conmen.

In January, Nanyang Polytechnic student Sandra (not her real name) armed herself with four devices – a phone, an iPad and two laptops – to make sure she would get her hands on tickets to Bruno Mars’ concert in April.

Despite her efforts, she could not get her tickets from authorised seller Ticketmaster.

So, she decided to try her luck on messaging platform Telegram – an option a few of her friends suggested.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Feb 27, Sandra, 19, said: “I’ve heard horror stories about online marketplace Carousell and how there are many scam listings, so I tried Telegram instead.”

Tickets at the authorised seller sold for $174 each, but she expected resellers to add a small mark-up to the price, she added.

“I was looking for two standing tickets, and found someone selling them on Telegram for $200 each.”

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To be safe, she asked the seller for screenshots of the tickets, and for the tickets to be handed over to her in person. The seller agreed but asked for a 50 per cent deposit.

Said Sandra: “I was sceptical at first, but I checked the number used for his PayNow account and also saw that he had a typical Singaporean name. I thought he was genuine.”

Everything went downhill after she made payment. The seller blocked her on Telegram, which meant she could not contact the person or demand a refund. Within an hour, she lodged a police report.

She has yet to tell her father, but her mother is angry that she fell for the scam.

Sandra has since bought the tickets – from Ticketmaster this time – after more concert dates were added.

It is not just locals who are falling prey to such scams.

Foreign student Wu Yoyo, who studies at the Singapore Raffles Music College in Alexandra, said she fell for the same tactics with two different sellers on Carousell.

The 18-year-old, who is from Shanghai, said she wanted to attend the Coldplay concert – not because she was a fan of the British band, but because this would be her first concert.

She found tickets for both concerts on sale on Carousell – she could not get Coldplay tickets from Ticketmaster, and she did not want to stand in line at the crack of dawn for Taylor Swift tickets.

Ms Wu said she leaned towards listings that were reasonably priced. For Coldplay, she was looking at two Category 4 seats costing $300 in total, and four Category 1 Swift tickets that added up to $1,600.

Ms Wu Yoyo, an 18-year-old Singapore Raffles Music College student, showing her exchange with the scammer during an interview on Feb 27, 2024. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

On the official ticketing platforms, the Coldplay tickets were being sold for $214 each, while the Swift tickets were going $358 each, she added.

When she was ready to buy the Coldplay tickets, she contacted the seller on WhatsApp.

She said: “I thought I could trust him because besides selling tickets on his account, he was also selling electronics. He also had a few good reviews on his page.”

Ms Wu later realised that he did not have the Singpass-verified Carousell account.

“After making payment, another person he had sold the same tickets to messaged me after finding my reviews on his page. We confronted him, and he became angry and defensive.”

They lodged a report with Carousell about his account, and at about the same time, the seller became inactive on WhatsApp. Ms Wu made a police report a few days later.