National Australia Bank has warned punters to be on the lookout for scams on social media sites claiming to have tickets to high-profile sold-out concerts such as Taylor Swift in the coming months.
The bank said on Thursday that after alert prompts were introduced into its banking app and online banking site in March warning customers they might be scammed, about $220,000 worth of transactions were abandoned a day. These alerts have since been expanded to cover ticket and marketplace scams.
NAB’s manager for security advisory and awareness, Laura Hartley, said those responding to fans on social media seeking a ticket were often scammers, and people should be “extremely cautious” about buying tickets from social media, even if it was from a friend, and instead look to official resellers.
“We’re hearing about criminals hacking social media profiles and selling bogus concert tickets to the account owner’s friends, who aren’t aware someone else is controlling the account,” she said.
“Even if it’s a friend you legitimately know, pick up the phone and talk to them directly before sending money.”
Hartley said people who thought they’d been scammed should contact their bank immediately.
A search for Taylor Swift tickets on Facebook reveals dozens of Facebook groups for people seeking to obtain tickets not just in Australia but across the globe. Many of the groups also warn about the potential for buyers to be scammed and encourage purchasing through authorised resellers.
NAB is advertising on Spotify, Facebook and Gumtree to warn of potential scams related to tickets for sold-out concerts.
A spokesperson for the Commonwealth Bank also said the bank should be a person’s first point of contact if they thought they had been scammed.
“We encourage customers to remain cautious and to stop, check and reject,” they said. “If you think you have been a victim of a fraud or scam, contact your bank immediately.”
The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, revealed on Thursday that since July, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (Asic) had taken down or blocked access to more than 2,500 scam investment or phishing websites, using Netcraft automated scam detection systems trialled in 2022, which saw more than 5,500 websites blocked in a three-week period.
An IT News report this year revealed Asic at the time had approached both hosting companies as well as Apple, Meta, Google and Amazon Web Services requesting various sites including Elon Musk-related scams be removed.
Most of the sites blocked by Asic since the launch of the new tool had been fake investment platforms appearing to offer high-risk products, such as FX derivatives and crypto assets, Jones said.
Asic’s use of the tool comes 10 years after the agency accidentally blocked 1,200 sites from access in Australia when attempting to block access to a scam website.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is facing lawsuits from both the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and billionaire Andrew Forrest over scam ads appearing on its platform. The federal court rejected Meta’s application to stay the case pending the outcome of the Forrest case late last month.
Meta has pleaded not guilty in the Forrest case. Both cases will return to court later this month.
