Several Taylor Swift fans were reportedly defrauded of a total of $70,000 in a ticketing scam related to the singer’s soon-to-be-concluded The Eras Tour, allegedly run by a Toronto woman onion. She has now been arrested.
Authorities said the suspect, who used the alias “Denise Blackhawk,” lured victims on Facebook Marketplace and tricked at least 28 fans into paying huge sums for tickets they never received. Okay.
Indeed, affected Swifties paid hundreds, even thousands of dollars each to secure seats at Swift’s Toronto concert next month. But police revealed that when the buyer asked for a refund, the defendant claimed the money had disappeared, CBC reports.
Some counterfeit tickets are believed to have been sold as early as 2023, when legitimate tickets were initially available. Victims were assured that their tickets would arrive closer to the concert date, but those promises were not kept.
The defendant, whose true identity has not been disclosed, now faces 32 charges of fraud under $5,000, one charge of fraud over $5,000 and additional charges of possession of property obtained by crime. sin. She is scheduled to appear in court on January 10.
Canadian authorities suspect there may be many other victims who have not yet come forward. One alleged victim told CBC she was contacted by nearly 160 individuals, who collectively said they purchased about 420 tickets from the same seller.
The scam highlights the broader issue of ticket resale controversy surrounding Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour. Just recently, the pop superstar tried to make tickets more accessible by selling “no show” tickets for $16 for her upcoming Vancouver shows in December.
Tickets are limited in capacity to give more fans the opportunity to attend the final shows of the tour. However, investors quickly bought up these chairs, reselling them at exorbitant prices – sometimes up to more than $1,000 – on resale platforms.
Swift’s Eras Tour attracted enormous attention for its unprecedented demand, leaving fans frustrated as they faced scammers and scalpers. For many, getting tickets to her shows has become a near impossibility, made even more complicated by schemes like the one in Toronto.
The Eras Tour, which featured Swift’s three-hour-plus stage show and has had global coverage since March 2023, is among the top five highest-grossing tours of all time, a list that includes huge tours from big earners like Elton John, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.
Tags Taylor Swift, Era Tour