According to information, many victims bought tickets from resellers and went to the National Stadium, but close to G hour they discovered that these were fake tickets so they could not enter. In other cases, the scammer blocks contact immediately after receiving money from the victim.

From January 1 to March 12, at least 1,551 speakers became victims of e-commerce fraud related to music show tickets, with a total loss of no less than

737,000 USD

. Of these, 960 people fell into Swift’s concert ticket scam and lost more than

$538,000 .

“We are concerned that the number of fraud cases will increase as Singapore becomes an attractive destination for many international artists. If I had to evaluate, I think online fraud is the most common and dangerous fraud in the first half. 2024,” Aileen Yap – Assistant Commissioner of Police, and assistant director of the Anti-Fraud Command (ASCom) – said.

The Straits Times

, most of the people who bought fake The Eras Tour tickets over the Internet were 30 years old or younger.

Explaining this situation, Aileen said: “Women often have optimism bias (a pre-existing belief in each person that the likelihood of them experiencing negative events is very low) and the overconfidence effect. (tendency to overestimate one’s knowledge). These two factors make it easier for them to be fooled.”

Taylor Swift’s 6 nights concert in Singapore were packed, but not everyone was able to get into the stadium. Photo:

The Straits Times.

After reports of fraud, the Carousell website immediately suspended ticket sales from February 23 to March 9. Carousell CEO Tan Su Lin said that amid the rush to buy tickets, users tend to be subjective and just want to grab tickets as soon as possible. Therefore, scammers target victims on Facebook, X, Telegram or Xiaohongshu to conduct fraud.

In early March, Edwin Tong

Singapore’s Minister of Culture, Community and Youth – announced that attracting international stars and events was part of the goal of promoting many fields in this island nation, including economic promotion thanks to the Swiftonimics effect.

The Straits Times quoted economists, estimating that Swift’s six concerts could bring in $500 million in tourism revenue for Singapore. Meanwhile, some experts confidently say that although the immediate plan is to tackle scams, the increasing number of scam reports will not affect the reputation of a cultural center. like Singapore.

Fraudulent behavior is increasingly sophisticated

In a recent interview, Lawrence Loh, a business professor at the National University of Singapore, said the government’s enforcement efforts to crack down on music show ticket scammers has proven that the lion island nation does not take it lightly. misconduct.

He cited the police arrest of a woman named Foo Mei Qi (29 years old) for allegedly tricking many people into buying fake tickets since September 2023, causing a total loss of 24,000 USD . This person is being detained and is at risk of being imprisoned for 10 years.

According to Aileen Yap, fraud cases are increasing on a large scale and becoming more and more sophisticated. And the Foo Mei Qi case is just one of a series of “ticket scam” cases using malware since 2023. There have been more than 1,899 similar cases reported and the amount of damage amounted to 34.1 million USD .

Aileen Yap said a 50-year-old woman almost lost $110,000 because she was scammed with malware. Ms Yap said: “She downloaded a file on Facebook and thought she could use it to pay for a purchase. But after entering her banking details, her phone was hacked and the money was transferred. out of her account. Thanks to the timely intervention of the police, she was lucky to not lose her life savings.”

The situation of “ticket scam” occurs commonly before artists’ concerts. Photo: People.

The above case raises a warning bell for social network users, whether young or old, who need to be skeptical of links that require entering personal information to avoid “losing money and suffering”.

“No matter how much money is lost, I always feel pain for the victims. When they call us, they cry and are inconsolable,” Aileen said.

Scams are likely to continue to be common in Singapore and many other countries, because with advances in technology and strong connectivity across a wide range of applications, scams cannot be eradicated. point in the near future.