Taylor Swift fans have warned of a Ticketmaster scam that has seen them lose their tickets and also end up hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
Savannah Van Skyhawk realised the issue is commonplace after being met with similar accounts after she shared her story online.
The Swiftie was expecting to see the singer-songwriter at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in November when she bought the lower-level tickets more than a year ago at face value.
But she found she had been locked out of her account and then spotted her four tickets on a resale site.
“[Scammers] took my tickets, transferred them elsewhere, and then I couldn't get back into my Ticketmaster account,” she told WHTR.
“We paid about $300 (£224) per ticket, and I've seen resale value of between like four or five grand per ticket. So we weren't going to be able to afford another ticket if we didn't get these ones back.”
Van Skyhawk claimed she contacted Ticketmaster several times over the course of nearly three weeks as soon as she realised she was locked out of her account.
“They would just tell me: ‘We'd call you in three to five days.' So, I'd wait three to five days, and they wouldn't call me. I try calling them again, and then again, they'd say three to five days. It was just kind of a circle, like no one ever called me.”
Van Skyhawk didn’t get her tickets back until 13News stepped in, which contacted Ticketmaster on her behalf and managed to restore Van Skyhawk’s account and tickets the same day.
“They didn't explain how it happened. They just said once I'm back into my account, to change the email and change the password.”
Van Skyhawk isn’t alone, similar fraud issues were also raised by Reddit members.
One user commented: “Just had a 667 dollar ELO ticket stolen from my account and resold to someone for 228 dollars. Not a happy camper. Last time I use Ticketmaster. Started a fraud complaint but not hopeful.”
While another added: “just got my tickets stolen for Kacey Musgraves in Nov.”
A third user said: “Just happened to me this morning. I reached Customer service and they said someone should call me back in 3-5 business days. Bought 8 football tux for son’s bday party. I’m so upset!.”
A large number of these claims were made in the months after a significant data leak at Ticketmaster. Cybercriminals claimed they had stolen personal information from as many as 560 million customers.
According to a Ticketmaster statement: "Ticketmaster passwords were not exposed in the data incident earlier this year."
"The vast majority of what we’re seeing is because scammers have accessed a fan’s email account." the statement continued.
Ticketmaster had a few recommendations for keeping accounts safe.
“The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate. Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”
The Standard has approached Ticketmaster for comment.
