It’s a rare and thrilling moment when your favorite band or artist announces tour dates in your city, especially on a weekend when you’re free. But along with the excitement comes a dark reality: the rise of concert ticket scammers. Hiding behind unknown screens and behind unknown phones, these shady celebrities are always ready to exploit curious fans. The whole Coldplay fiasco is an example of how dangerous these resellers can be. Recently, news came to light about an 18-year-old youth from Chunabhatti, Maharashtra, who fell victim to a similar scam while trying to buy tickets for a Coldplay concert, causing huge losses to him. 2.2 lakh.
According to a report, the teen found a valid contact while searching for tickets online. after payment The amount of Rs 7,000 he raised through UPI for his own ticket was shared with friends, who collectively spent 2.17 lakh on 24 tickets. The fraudsters sent a fake email confirmation from ‘confirmation@book-my-show.co’ and would have been successful had a relative not noticed the discrepancies in the email address; This made the teenager realize that he had been cheated and lodged a police report. Although this phenomenon may seem shocking, black market activity around popular music festivals is nothing new.
Singapore is facing the brunt
According to an announcement from the Singapore Police Force (SPF), 583 individuals in Singapore were defrauded by an e-commerce concert ticket scam this February, resulting in a loss of at least $223,000. The scammers used their SingPass credentials to open new bank accounts and mobile phone lines, then created fake listings for concert tickets. Targeted events included performances by Taylor Swift, Coldplay, pop duo Yoasobi, singer Joker Zou as well as South Korean boy band, Enhypen. Some scammers also provided fake screenshots or videos of tickets and promised to transfer them to victims’ accounts once payment was completed.
Taylor’s fans had to endure scandals
In April 2024, Lloyds Bank released a report based on its own customer group to find an increase in cases of fraud related to concert tickets for Taylor Swift’s widely popular Erasure Tour. After tickets went on sale in July, 90% of the victims accessed informal groups with thousands of members willing to buy and sell tickets to Swift’s famous concerts. Later, more than 600 customers came forward to complain of fraud. The average amount lost by damp victims was around £332, while in some cases it exceeded £1,000. The same bank then looked at a larger set of data related to general concert scams, finding that these ticket scams increased by 158% in 2024 – targeted artists included Coldplay, Harry Styles, Beyonce, Lewis Capaldi and Calvin Harris .
This happened in Hong Kong too!
Similarly, in July this year, several South Korean pop idol groups and local artists were set to perform in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, authorities reported that 57 concert ticket fraud cases resulted in losses of more than HK$420,000. Many victims in Hong Kong fell into the trap of these scams after engaging in misleading posts on various social media platforms such as Carousel, Instagram and Facebook.
AR Rahman’s concert disaster
Although we have come to expect the presence of scammers, a significant change occurred when the organizers themselves began exploiting loyal fans. A case of this came to light in September 2023 when AR Rahman fans were unable to enjoy his much-awaited Marakkama Nenjam concert due to excessive sale of fake tickets. Held at the Adityaram Palace grounds on the East Coast Road (ECR) near Chennai, the venue was hit by an unexpectedly huge crowd following a massive sell-off of tickets, leaving many fans with valid tickets to return home disappointed.
Investigating how such a large number of people reached the venue, the police registered a case against Hemant Kumar, director of ACTC Events. Tambaram Police Commissioner A. Amalraj said, “Our investigation revealed that the organizers oversold tickets. Moreover, many people had fake tickets in their hands – which could have been a reason for the overcrowding. The organizers violated the conditions imposed in the license granted to them to conduct the event. Taking a page out of Fyre Festival’s book, organizers had initially told police that around 20,000 people would gather at the venue, but they had sold upwards of 40,000 tickets – with many fans having brought fake tickets to the venue, which They were sold by the organizers themselves.
There are now several ways to ensure that you don’t fall straight into a scam. Main asks you to only purchase from trusted sellers and to exercise extra caution when purchasing from third-party sellers. More vaguely, experts advise you to avoid deals that look too good to be true; If the prices are really low or you are getting a special discount in exchange for very little extra money, you should take another route. Otherwise, you may also find solace in the heartbreaking threads on Reddit from fans who lost large sums of money on tickets.
