‘Swifties’ scammed out of cash in search for Taylor Swift tickets in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - While tens of thousands of Taylor Swift fans descended on Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for the second weekend of the superstar’s “Eras” tour, many concert hopefuls encountered scammers on resale markets and some even lost money.

“The person I was talking to sounded so real. They weren’t real. They know what to say and know how to get you,” said a young woman named Jules, who encountered a scammer this week in a search for available tickets to take her mother. She had hoped for a quick drive from California to Las Vegas to make a concert.

Jules hopes to be a cautionary tale for fellow Swifties who are looking to prey on young fans, women and families. “They know how to pull like your heartstrings. I felt like they had a decent amount of followers too, so I thought they weren’t just like a new account. They asked for $500 for the tickets, and then, obviously skeptical. So then they mentioned, ‘Oh, you can just send $150, and then after you send the $150 I’ll transfer your tickets’,” Jules explained about the transaction.

Once Jules sent the money, the ticket inbox was a “blank space.”

Another woman told FOX5, that in her search for a Los Angeles of Las Vegas ticket, she sent a scammer $600 and never got any seats.

As recently as the night before the Las Vegas concert, a woman on Twitter posted, “Got scammed... I should be on my way to Vegas right now for @taylorswift13 and I’m not,” she wrote.

The Better Business Bureau of Southern Nevada likens scammers to those who “catfish” in romance scams.

“They can look nice online and you might think you’re talking to this person, but that’s a totally different person on the other end. Unfortunately, once you wire that money, it’s gone,” said Randa Haddad of the BBB.

The BBB and other consumer experts advise that buying directly from the box office or original vendor-- like Ticketmaster, AXS or Live Nation-- is always the most secure purchase.

If you need to scour the resale market, StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork and Mega Seats are sites that scrutinize buyers and sellers and provide customer service support.

You can find other legit ticket sale companies through the National Association of Ticket Brokers.

Some do’s and dont’s:

• Do use a credit card, for easier refund support to dispute charges as needed.
• Do make sure you’re on a *real* ticket sale site-- not a fake dupe site.
• Do cross-check an individual seller on the BBB’s scam tracker, where you can search their phone number, email or even social media or seller handles.
• Don’t send money to online strangers, according to Venmo; the app suggest you only deal with venmo-approved business accounts.
• Don’t fall for a price that is too good to be true.

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