Swifties lost $658,000 to ticket scams last year, how much will fans lose for Lady Gaga concerts?
Abracadabra, and your money has disappeared!
Because of the upcoming Lady Gaga concerts, the police are warning fans to avoid getting scammed like the fans of Taylor Swift in 2024.
Last year, at least 1,050 reports of scams were lodged in relation to Swift's concerts with total losses amounting to at least $658,000.
Most were scammed when they bought tickets from resellers on messaging or social media platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, Telegram, X, Carousell, and Xiaohongshu.
In some cases, the scammers would provide screenshots or videos of fake tickets or receipts to convince the fans that the tickets are authentic. Scammers would also claim that ticket sales were time-sensitive or limited in quantity and promise to deliver the tickets to the fans after successful payment.
When the fans did not receive their concert tickets, the scammers would request additional payments by claiming that they did not receive the payments.
The poor fans would realise they had been scammed only when the scammers did not deliver the tickets or became uncontactable.
Others who received their tickets realise they had been scammed only when their tickets were found to be invalid at concert venues.
The police had tried to warn fans against buying Taylor Swift tickets from resellers to no avail.
Lady Gaga is due to perform at the Singapore Sports Hub on May 18, 19, 21 and 24, her only concerts in Asia.
After ticket pre-sales for Mastercard holders kicked off on March 18 at 10am, scalpers began reselling tickets with some listings appearing within minutes.
Listings for tickets on online marketplace Carousell were priced as high as $38,888, with others going for up to $12,000 on resale sites such as Viagogo and Stubhub.
The police remind to purchase tickets only from the authorised platforms: Ticketmaster, Klook and KrisFlyer. There are no other authorised platforms selling Lady Gaga concert tickets.
Ticketmaster's terms and conditions for the sale state clearly that tickets cannot be transferred or resold. Those who are found to have purchased resale tickets will be turned away from the concert at the Singapore Sports Hub, with no refund.
In addition, tickets would only be issued to buyers via their Ticketmaster account one month prior to the event. Ticketmaster will never issue tickets via email.
"The public should also be wary of resellers claiming to be able to transfer their tickets to your Ticketmaster account after purchase, as the tickets are strictly not transferable," said the police.
