Photo Credit: Taylor Swift by Paolo Villanueva / CC by 2.0
A scam affects around 400 people who allegedly lost $300k in total after buying what they believed were Taylor Swift tickets in Toronto.
A scam that seems to have targeted around 400 people, many of whom were based out of Burlington, Ontario, has them out allegedly $300k in total for what they believed were Taylor Swift tickets they were purchasing in Toronto, but never received. Numerous alleged victims found one another online, discovering they were not alone in falling for the scam.
Annette Newton told CTV News that she heard about a friend who said she knew a reseller with corporate tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. But even she had her doubts from the beginning. "I contacted that person directly, and she offered me some tickets," she said, telling CTV News that several friends on Facebook vouched for the woman's credibility.
"Followed through and asked a lot of questions," Newton said, explaining that the main reason she ultimately decided to trust this person was because of multiple people in their Burlington community vouching for her and showing pictures of tickets they had purchased from her. "I made sure I spoke with her on the phone, I emailed her, I looked at her Facebook, people were saying 'thank you for the tickets.' Then I contacted a few people who said, 'Yup, I got a few tickets from her.'"
According to Newton, the woman, who went by Denise on Facebook, said she had access to a third-party seller who gave her access to corporate sections of major events in Toronto, which included concerts and sporting events. Newton purchased four tickets for around $2,500 from her as a gift to her daughters for Christmas last year.
She was told by Denise that she would have access to those tickets in the days before Swift's second Toronto show on November 15. This is not dissimilar to how Ticketmaster releases its tickets for Swift's shows: releasing them only a few days beforehand so people can't download them and resell them.
But when the day came for the tickets to arrive, Newton said Denise told her the third-party seller never sent her the tickets. "I heard back fairly quickly from her saying, 'I have a problem, I don't have the tickets... they're gone, my corporate guy did not come through, I'm sorry -- there's nothing I can do,'" Newton claims. "The money didn't come to mind; it was that I had to tell my four daughters who are all getting ready and excited to go to this event that I just got scammed," she adds. "I was embarrassed."
Afterward, Newton says she reached out to several other moms on Facebook who had also not received their tickets for the Toronto show. But the list of alleged victims continued to grow, and several of them created a shared online document to gather names and the amount each had allegedly spent on tickets they hadn't received. "As of late [Friday] night, it's over $300,000," said Jenny Beck from Oakville, Ontario, of the shared Google document. Beck said she hadn't received the tickets she bought for her 16-year-old to see Taylor Swift.
"There are over 200 individuals who have purchased tickets and we figure she promised 450 tickets to everybody in total," said Alaina Attard in an interview with CTV News. Attard also said the figure collectively spent on the ticket scam, according to the shared Google doc, is over $300,000. "The scope of it is absolutely massive," she said." "This is across multiple provinces; there are people in the States. It's not just Burlington."
According to Attard and some of the other moms in the region who spoke with CTV News, Denise is a known mother in their neighborhood, whom many had met in person and said was credible. All the alleged victims say they were told by Denise that it was the supplier of the corporate tickets who had taken their money and disappeared, leaving her holding the bag. Denise asserts she, too, was a victim.
While CTV News tried to contact Denise, they were told by someone who identified themselves as Denise over the phone that she had "already made a report to the police two days ago at 9 AM in the morning, so we'll just wait for them to contact me." The news outlet said she hung up before they could ask any further questions, and would not answer any calls afterward.
Police are investigating multiple reports of people who paid for Taylor Swift tickets and never received them. "We have spoken to our Financial Crimes Unit and can confirm we have received multiple reports and complaints regarding Taylor Swift tickets," said Halton Regional Police spokesperson, Jeff Dillon. "Not much more info I can give you right now as complaints just started to come in [Friday], but we would remind residents to be vigilant when purchasing tickets."
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