At least 54 victims lost more than S$45,000 to scammers in less than a week after trying to buy scalped Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Singapore concert tickets.
These figures were released by the police.
E-commerce scams, which include concert tickets scams, made it to the top five list of scams of concern in the police’s weekly scams update on Friday, July 14.
Such scams did not make the list the week before.
The amount and number of victims of scams is part of a larger trend.
The authorities said the latest figures indicated that there has been at least 522 victims of such scams in 2023 alone as of July 10.
The victims lost at least S$518,000.
This is more than the 199 victims who were duped in such scams in the whole of 2022.
The amount lost so far this year was almost triple the S$175,000 lost to such scams in the whole of 2022.
Scams involving concert tickets going up
The police also said there has been a resurgence of scams involving concert ticket sales and with more acts performing in Singapore this year.
The police added that Twitter was the most common platform on which victims fell prey to Taylor Swift concert ticket scams.
Carousell, Xiaohongshu, Telegram and Facebook were the other platforms scammers used.
“With many unsuspecting customers falling prey to e-commerce scams involving concert tickets lately, the police have highlighted to Carousell and other platforms such as Twitter and Meta the growing concern of scams arising from the resale of concert tickets,” the police said.
Advisory
The police advised the public to avoid making advance payments or direct bank transfers to unfamiliar people or those not met in person.
This is on top of checking the company’s official website, seller’s online reviews and ratings.
They also advised the public not to install any apps that sellers send via links in messaging apps.
It is only advisable to download apps from official app stores like Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Swift is slated to play six nights at the National Stadium, from March 2 to 4 and 7 to 9, 2024.
Tickets, which cost S$88 to S$1,228, sold out over two days and some 300,000 fans are expected to attend.
Top photo via Taylor Swift Instagram