Sask. woman loses $500 to Taylor Swift ticket Facebook scam

Taylor Swift’s immensely popular Eras Tour is one of the hardest shows to find tickets for.

Now, scammers are trying to use the tour’s popularity to their advantage.

In a new type of scam, scammers are pretending to be Facebook “friends” with their victims and asking them to put a deposit down for Taylor Swift tickets before taking off with the money.

Christy Garn said her aunt fell victim to the scam and lost $500 as a result.

Garn said someone hacked into the Facebook account of one of her aunt’s co-workers and made a post claiming that she had Swift tickets available.

“My auntie just went ahead and immediately jumped on it, and said she wanted them,” explained Garn. “She contacted me and told me about it. I was working, so I was really busy, and unfortunately didn’t have enough time to ask my auntie a ton of questions.”

Garn said she wished she had been able to talk to her aunt in detail before she sent any money, just so she could ask her a few more questions about the post.

“She never actually spoke to this woman in person or face to face – it was only on Facebook,” said Garn.

“Scammers are tricking people into believing it’s one of your close friends or family so you trust them.”

Garn said her aunt sent $500 as a deposit to hold the tickets.

“There were four tickets and this lady wanted $2,000 for all four tickets which, honestly, seemed too good to be true,” said Garn.

Garn said when she found out her aunt didn’t speak to the person who made the post in person, she had a gut feeling that it might have been a scam.

“She contacted the lady via her phone number, and found out it wasn’t her. Her account had been hacked,” she said.

Matthew Bradford of the Saskatoon Police Service’s Economic Crime Section said he has seen Taylor Swift ticket scams before, but none of them through Facebook.

“I have seen online buy-and-sell reports revolving around Taylor Swift concert tickets,” said Bradford. “I have seen reports where people have noticed their Facebook accounts have been compromised and then their friends are solicited for money.”

Bradford warned people to be careful when sending money online, particularly if the situation seems at all fishy.

“I encourage people not to send money before they know an item is real or they have seen it themselves,” said Bradford.