[UPDATE: We have updated the article with Live Nation's reply]

Another day, another BTS scandal.

Uber-popular K-Pop boy band BTS is coming to Singapore for a concert on Jan. 19, 2019 at the National Stadium.

However, it appears that BTS concert tickets can already be purchased via "underground" methods and at inflated prices, even before official ticket sales have opened.

Resellers claim they got tickets directly from official organiser

The underground ticket sales are currently being conducted via various social media channels.

The unofficial resellers claim tickets are purportedly acquired directly from the concert organiser, in this case, Live Nation.

Translated:

"Hi! How did you get internal tickets? I really love BTS so I want to reserve a ticket for myself."

"We are an above-board ticketing company. All of our tickets are from the organiser."

Guaranteed tickets

According to this Twitter thread, getting priority access to concert tickets is very difficult.

This lends a bit of credence to the allegation that these resellers might be somehow getting the tickets directly from the organiser.

The other conclusion would be that the unofficial resellers are not selling real tickets, and this is actually a scam.

Commission fees

These scalpers allegedly charge extra commission fees on top of the normal ticket price.

These commission fees apparently go to the reseller for overseeing the sale, and also paying off the employee who supplied the tickets.

This can come up to paying S$270 more for commission alone.

As seen in this screenshot from a purported pre-sale ticket group, this reseller mentioned that someone connected to a Live Nation employee has 150 tickets to offer as a pre-sale, and that he had already received more than 300 orders for the tickets:

This reseller claimed she got the tickets directly from Live Nation:

Commission fee to "guarantee" ticket

According to this screenshot below, the buyers needs to first pay S$200 per ticket as a form of reservation, and then pay the price of the ticket on the actual day itself when it is handed over.

The commission varies according to the seat location: S$150 for standing and first floor, S$100 and below for second and third floor.

The seller also explained that the commission fee is sort of a "guarantee" that buyers will get their tickets.

The allegation being put forward on Twitter is that the organiser sets aside a portion of such tickets to be ordered via the scalpers and resellers before official sale begins, so as to reap a higher profit margin.

This is possible as people willing to pay a higher price for the tickets earlier are assured their tickets.

Alternatively, this way of selling tickets is an illegal scam.

Problems of resellers and scalpers

One measure implemented for an upcoming concert in Singapore to deal with the scourge of resellers and scalpers is to personalise the tickets by printing the names of buyers on them.

This is what the organiser of the upcoming Ed Sheeran concert in Singapore is doing.

Live Nation: Reserved-ticket sales are scams

In response to Mothership queries, Live Nation's marketing manager Shila Wijaya said the accounts selling pre-sale tickets are scams and "strongly urge all fans to stay vigilant".

She reiterated that there are "strictly no resale tickets, after parties or reserved tickets for BTS World Tour "Love Yourself" Singapore, adding that claims of connection to Live Nation are false.

Wijaya also mentioned that Live Nation has identified one Twitter account that is suspected of offering scalping services.

Live Nation has reported this account to Twitter and is currently monitoring other accounts.

Wijaya also added that it is working closely with SportsHubTix to "monitor the situation, especially during the on-sale process to identify any suspicious activity".

With regard to the personalised name system, Wijaya said that as this is the first time SportsHubTix is implementing it, Live Nation wants to "understand the entire process" and glean "enough positive data" before proceeding with changes.

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