How to avoid being duped in a Taylor Swift ticket scam

With demand high for tickets to the singer's Australian shows, scammers will be out to cash in.

There are many stories of people paying money for tickets but never receiving them, or receiving digital tickets, but the fake ticket doesn’t scan at the gate. Some information to help you to decide whether or not to buy resell tickets.

Tips to spotting a scam?

 a.     Inflated prices- Just hours presales opening for the singer’s Australian tour, tickets were being sold online for more than $3,000 (hike of around 300%). In USA we’ve seen prices as high as $18000 for resell tickets.

 b.    Push hasty payments- The seller will be pushy and want you to act before they have time to think. They will often target products that are in high demand and that need to buy now or you will lose out.

c. Extra charges will be added at the time of purchase: eg you pay the price of the tickets and then the seller will say something like ‘there’s also a handling fee to pay’ and a ‘delivery fee to pay’. They will only say this after you have sent the initial fee for the tickets.

d.     Encourage cash transfer apps as you can’t reverse the transaction if you realise the tickets are a fake.

e.    Use dodgy photos- the seller is not necessarily genuine if they provide a photo. Many buyers who have been scammed say that a photo was shown as proof of the tickets for sale.

 f.     Blank/minimal social media profile: Resell tickets are usually for sale via social media. If you feel unsure of the authenticity of the buyer, check out their online profile. If there is no history of engagement, no biographical details, no location, contacts, or workplace - effectively a blank profile, with little in the way of identifiers - then be suspicious.

g. Fake resell site: there are trustworthy resell sites however there are also scam versions of these sites. Check the website that you are using is the actual authentic site.

If you get scammed and the tickets don’t arrive or don’t scan:

a. Put a stop on the card you used for purchase. Your bank can also let you know if more purchases have been made on your card by the ticket scammer.

b. Let the police know.

c. Due to the cash transfer app used its unlikely you will be able to get your money back. If you used a platform such as PayPal for the purchase then PayPal will likely to be to assist you.