Like thousands of other Australian mums, Rachel Chappell is still desperately trying to secure tickets to the Taylor Swift concerts taking place in Sydney next month.
It’s a gut-wrenching and seemingly fruitless task, as the Sydney mother – who founded and runs the popular Facebook group and website North Shore Mums – wants to buy them for her eight-year-old daughter, Ella.
Speaking to 9honey, Chappell says she thought the hardest part would be losing out on Swift tickets before the concerts in February. Little did she know, there are cruel scammers eager to prey on parents online.
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“I wanted to get tickets for my daughter, she’s just absolutely desperate and all she talks about is wanting to go,” Chappell explains.
“I spent days when the tickets were on sale with multiple browsers, trying to buy real tickets with no luck.”
Chappell thought her luck had turned when she saw a post in her North Shore Mums Facebook group advertising four Taylor Swift tickets for February 25 at Accor Stadium in Sydney. The seller wanted $309 per ticket and Chappell was more than happy to pay.
The seller’s profile seemed legitimate and after chatting on Facebook Messenger, Chappell agreed to pay half of the ticket price first ($618) and the remainder once the tickets were emailed.
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“I said, ‘Look I feel a bit nervous about this’ and she agreed that I’d transfer half now and then she’d transfer the tickets immediately after via the Ticketek wallet,” Chappell recalls.
“She said, ‘I have to trust you too’. It was a legitimate conversation and she used clever language.”
Indeed, Chappell put her trust in the seller – who she assumed was another Sydney mum as the profile was a longtime member of her Facebook group.
Once she’d sent the first half of the money via PayPal, the first “red flag” became clear.
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“I’m about to transfer all 4 tickets now and it’s asking for name change fee which is just $75 each so that’s $300,” the next message from the seller read.
“Same bank details, and once done send me a screenshot and I will transfer tickets immediately.”
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Chappell says this message triggered a “sickening feeling”. Was she being scammed? Nothing on Google seemed to verify that Ticketek had such a pricey transfer fee policy.
To try and solve it, she messaged the seller again.
“Please prove me wrong. I have a sick feeling that I have been scammed,” she wrote. “If you can please get the tickets to me by 5pm or refund the $618 to me – PayID is xxx. If I don’t get a reply then I’ll be going public to warn others…”
Chappell hoped it was a misunderstanding and that the seller would respond in due course. By 5pm, she still hadn’t heard anything from the woman. She says it then sunk in the tickets were never going to land in her inbox.
“That’s when the penny dropped,” she says. “I never heard back from them, I have since blocked them.”
She was out $618, with no Taylor Swift tickets to show for it.
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Chappell then called her bank and reported the transfer she’d just put through. She says the bank said it will attempt to try and block the payment, which was to an ANZ account, but it could take up to six weeks.
“They advised me this was so common and they were getting many calls a day about similar scams. They also told me to stop all communications with the person.”
Chappell has also reported the seller’s profile to Facebook, but as of January 19, it remains active. She has also reported the instance to NSW Police and Scamwatch.
9honey has contacted NSW Police and Meta.
Chappell says the scam seemed so legitimate and is worried other Australians will suffer the same fate.
“Trying to get tickets… you’re just emotional and excited and I thought I’d finally got these tickets for my daughter,” she says. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”
In a statement to 9honey, a spokesperson for Scamwatch said: “The National Anti-Scam Centre is aware of reports of scams associated with Taylor Swift tickets circulating on social media.
“This has been particularly prevalent in NSW and Victoria. We have received reports of tickets being sold on social media where accounts have been compromised by scammers.”
Protection advice
- For high demand events, consumers need to proceed with caution. These events can attract fraudulent activities including ticket scalping, reselling at inflated prices and criminal behaviour including scams.
- The ACCC recommends that consumers buy tickets from an authorised ticket seller to ensure they purchase legitimate tickets.
- Buying tickets through social media is high risk, even if it’s from someone you know, as accounts can be compromised by scammers.
- Always look for secure payment options such as PayPal or Apple/Google Pay rather than providing your credit card details to the seller. Paypal provides information about scams to users on its website. Scammers often ask you to pay by non-secure payment methods such as wire, bank or international funds transfers, money orders, pre-loaded gift cards, and cryptocurrency. It’s rare to recover money sent this way.
- Be alert to the fact that scams exist. When dealing with uninvited contacts from people or businesses, whether it’s over the phone, by mail, email, in person or on social media, always consider the possibility that the approach may be a scam.
If you have fallen victim to this scam, report it to Scamwatch here.