Over 960 in Singapore lost $538k in 10 weeks to Taylor Swift ticket scams

Assistant Commissioner of Police Aileen Yap, who is also assistant director of the police’s Anti-Scam Command (ASCom), said this in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times on March 11.

Yap said the reports lodged include some from victims who bought tickets from resellers and went to the National Stadium, only to discover that the tickets were fake and they could not enter the venue.

In other cases, scammers became uncontactable after receiving money from victims.

Yap said: “Within the first few days of Taylor Swift arriving in Singapore, the number of reports relating to concert ticket scams just shot up.”

The police said that between Jan 1 and March 12, at least 1,551 victims had fallen prey to e-commerce scams involving concert tickets, with total losses amounting to at least $737,000.

At least 960 of these victims had fallen for scams involving tickets to Swift’s concerts, and more than $538,000 was lost.

Yap said: “With more acts coming to Singapore, I’m worried the number of e-commerce scams will increase. If I were to make an assessment, I think e-commerce scams will be the top scam in the first half of 2024 if this trend continues.”

In 2023, the most common ruse victims fell prey to was job scams. E-commerce scams were the second most common scam that year, with 9,783 cases reported and at least $13.9 million lost.

AC Yap added that most of the e-commerce scam victims who made reports relating to tickets to Swift’s concerts were women aged 30 and below.

Optimism bias – the belief that one is less likely to experience a negative event compared with others – and overconfidence bias – the tendency to overestimate one’s knowledge – are among several factors that could have led some victims to be deceived, explained Yap.

“The issue of concert ticket scams is a challenge for us because there isn’t a straightforward way to totally combat it,” she said.

“Perhaps scalping can be regulated, because there are people who make thousands of dollars every time there is a major concert here by buying tickets in bulk and selling them at much higher prices. Others design bots just to purchase tickets at a fast rate.”

Yap commended online marketplace Carousell for suspending the sale of tickets to Swift’s concerts on its platform between Feb 23 and March 9 to prevent users from being scammed.

Carousell’s chief of staff Tan Su Lin said on March 13 that amid the rush for tickets, users were not catching on to scam indicators, such as sellers’ ratings that show if other buyers had found them to be reliable.

Scammers also targeted victims on other platforms such as Facebook, X, Telegram and Xiaohongshu, said Yap.

She added: “I’m concerned because as Singapore looks to host more concerts, we may have to anticipate more of such scams. Scammers can take advantage of these major concerts to proliferate their business.”

Earlier in March, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said actively courting big stars, events and opportunities is part of the Singapore Sports Hub’s new “hustle”, as Singapore looks to become a cultural hub.

The Straits Times earlier reported economists estimating that Swift’s six concerts here could boost Singapore’s economy by up to $500 million in tourism receipts.

Meanwhile, some experts believe that while scams need to be tackled, the growing number of scam reports will not affect Singapore’s reputation as a cultural hub.

Nadine Chua

The Straits Times

Asia News Network