Singaporeans Lost $45,000 to Concert Ticket Scams: Here’s How To Avoid Being One of Them!
With just how horrible Singapore’s ticketing system is, you might be one of the unlucky ones who didn’t manage to secure a concert ticket the first time.
Enter secondhand ticket hell, the place where scams, scalping, and bad experiences thrive.
According to recent news, at least 54 Singaporeans victims lost more than $45,000 to scammers in less than a week after trying to buy scalped Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Singapore concert tickets!
With concerts back in full swing, here are five important tips to help you avoid being scammed when purchasing secondhand concert tickets:
How To Avoid Concert Ticket Scams
For some context, the police have said that Twitter was the most common platform on which victims fell prey to Taylor Swift concert ticket scams.
Carousell, Xiaohongshu, Telegram, and Facebook were among the other platforms used.
It seems like no matter which platform you use, you’ll need to be cautious when buying tickets!
1. Check The Seller’s Account
While this may go without saying for some of us, it is still an important reminder to always check the seller’s account for anything suspicious!
A scammer’s account is typically recently created, unverified, and has little to no reviews on Carousell.
As for other platforms, tell-tale signs could include not having a profile picture, or few friends and followers.
2. Be Wary Of Those Asking For Deposits
When shopping for secondhand tickets, there are many who will ask for non-refundable deposits of 50 per cent or more.
Some may even provide “confirmation emails” for concert tickets. However, this becomes a problem as the actual tickets may not be released yet.
For Taylor’s concert, tickets will only be disbursed weeks before the show in March 2024 to prevent tickets from being accessed until the ticket company can confirm everyone has adhered to the event ticket limit and didn’t use unfair ticket technology to buy in bulk.
3. Don’t Click On Suspicious Links Or Give Out Personal Information
While this may also seem obvious to some of us, there have been plenty of cases when people have lost money just by clicking on links in Carousell without checking.
According to the Singapore Police Force, “Only domains that end with carousell.com or carousell.sg are Carousell domains. URLs such as carousellpay.com, carousell.xxx.com, carousell-pay.com, carousell.pay-sg.com are not Carousell domains. Carousell does not send links via SMS, and would only send OTPs via SMS. This OTP should only be keyed into the Carousell application or webpage.”
Similarly, do not click any links that do not have the correct domain.
When buying tickets, you also do not need to give out any sort of personal information such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers.
4. Opt For Physical Ticket Sales
Where possible, meet up with the seller so you can verify the authenticity of the ticket and make payment on the spot.
But we know that this might not be very possible with e-tickets, which brings us to our next point.
5. Join Fan Communities
Where possible, hop on Telegram groups or any other social media groups for more insider information.
Some fan groups even have Google Sheets to flag scalper and scammer accounts:
Perhaps the best part of joining fan communities is that you can simply drop a message to say that you are looking for tickets and other fans might drop you a private message (PM)!
These groups have a much lesser chance of meeting scammers and you can also check their social media to see what kind of person they are.
For example, I’ve recently requested for “The 1975” Day 2 tickets on a Telegram group I joined (just by searching the 1975), and I’ve gotten several PMs with spare tickets for sale.
I chatted with one of them and even exchanged Instagram handles to make friends while also verifying if this person was a fan selling tickets and not a scammer or scalper.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Avoiding Carousell Ticket Scams
In conclusion, make sure that you do enough background research and always question the actions of the seller.
For instance, if the seller asks you to pay using Carousell Pay for a rather cheap ticket and asks you to click on a link to pay, it is a scam!
Otherwise, try your best to acquire physical tickets and make payment only after you have verified the legitimacy of the ticket.
Have any experiences to share? Comment below!
