LONDON (AFP) – Thousands of fans of pop megastar Taylor Swift have been hit by a wave of concert ticket scams ahead of her tour in the United Kingdom (UK) later this year, a British bank said yesterday.
At least 3,000 victims are likely to have been tricked into buying fake tickets since July last year, with over GBP1 million (USD1.24 million) being lost to fraudsters so far, Lloyds Bank said.
The average amount lost by each victim was GBP332, though in some cases it was more than GBP1,000. The bank said more than 90 per cent of reported cases started with fake adverts or posts on Facebook. Concert ticket scams had risen by 158 per cent since last summer compared to the same period a year earlier, the bank added.
United States’ singer Beyonce, British band Coldplay and musician Harry Styles are the artistes most commonly used in the targeting, it noted. Across all concert ticket scams, victims were losing GBP133 on average.
A search of Facebook revealed dozens of unofficial groups had been set up, many with tens of thousands of members, specifically for people looking to buy and sell tickets for Swift concerts, Lloyds Bank said.
