Scammers turning to hacking in order to sell fake Taylor Swift Cardiff tickets

Scammers have been hacking into social media accounts trying to sell fake tickets to Taylor Swift’s Cardiff concert. 

Since announcing last year that she would be taking her Eras Tour to Europe, fans have been scrambling to get their hands on tickets to her show at the Principality Stadium this June.

The singer has already sold out shows around the world, breaking records with her ticket sales. Her Cardiff show sold out within minutes, with a number of Swifties now looking for resale tickets as a result. 

But, many fans have now been scammed by people selling fake tickets online.

• What if the scam is coming from a friend?

People have become accustomed to the tell-tale signs when it comes to online scammers. These can be anything from suspicious profiles with fake pictures and followers, to posts that include spelling mistakes and bad grammar. 

However, some scammers have now turned to hacking into people’s social media accounts, pretending to sell tickets to their friends. By doing this, a number of people are falling for the scam because of the ‘trusted’ source, and the legitimate look of the posts.

Indigo Jones, from Swansea, had her Facebook account hacked by someone who tried to sell tickets to her unsuspecting friends. 

“I realised because I was receiving so many messages from people asking ‘are you still selling those Taylor Swift tickets?’ and I was like ‘What? I’m not selling any tickets. I have tickets, but I’m not selling them’”, she said. 

“What happened was hackers had gone onto my Facebook to try and sell tickets to the Taylor Swift concert in Cardiff this June.

“I was really worried because I have a lot of friends on Facebook and I didn’t want people thinking that it was me trying to scam them into buying tickets.”

Some of Indigo’s friends were nearly conned out of hundreds of pounds by the hacker. 

She said: “One of my friends sent me screenshots of them talking to the hacker, and they were on the cusp of buying a ticket. But luckily for us, something went wrong with Facebook Messenger.

“They sent me a message on Instagram asking “Oh my God is this you?’ and I said ‘No please don’t buy the tickets!’”

Websites such as Viagogo and Vividseats are selling official resale tickets, but these can cost buyers anywhere from £300 to £500. 

Scammers will usually offer tickets at face value or for a discounted price. They will also try and rush the individual into sending the money over straight away, often through bank transfer. 

Sian Wyn Williams was scammed into buying tickets from someone pretending to be a friend of a friend, and she sent the money before anything clicked.

She wants to “raise awareness of these types of scams, for people to be super careful…not like me”, adding that she was “kicking herself for not realising.”

Indigo also wanted to offer advice for those looking to buy Taylor Swift tickets:

“I think the best advice I can give would be to look into the messages and ask yourself ‘does this sound like someone I know?’, because there were a lot of spelling mistakes in the post pretending to be me.

“But they were using the same mannerisms and the same emojis that I would use! So it’s really realistic, but look at the details and make sure you double-check everything and that the tickets they’re selling are actually real.”

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