Swifties Scammed by Toronto Ticket Reseller

Getting Taylor Swift tickets for Toronto felt harder than winning the lottery to thousands of Swifties. Ticketmaster sent out presale codes to a select few, and if you weren’t lucky enough to receive one, your best bet was buying tickets from a reseller. Unfortunately, high-demand tickets are popular for scammers, as they know people will do anything to secure tickets. Last weekend, it became clear that hundreds of Swifties were scammed by a seller on Facebook going by, Denise Blackhawk. It is estimated that she had sold over 400 tickets, which led to her pocketing nearly $300,000.

I spoke to Madison Mieux, a beauty, self-care, and lifestyle influencer based in Toronto about her experience with Denise. “A good friend of mine knew someone who was in contact with Denise for Taylor Swift tickets. Another friend of ours birthday was coming up, she is a massive Taylor fan, so we thought to purchase them for her birthday as a surprise,” Madison said. She had only found out it was a scam the day before the concert. “My friend messaged our group chat and said that another person who had purchased tickets for the Thursday show couldn’t go because they never received their tickets. I was shocked, I messaged Denise and she said the man that was supposed to give her the concert tickets never did. I was under the impression that Denise bought the tickets herself directly from a verified source. When I heard there was another party involved, I knew instantly that this was a scam.”

Madison is one of the hundreds scammed by Denise, and by sharing her story she hopes to warn others of what to look out for. One of the easiest ways to avoid scams is to purchase directly from the official source, such as Ticketmaster. However, this is easier said than done, with tickets selling out in a matter of minutes. If you do find second hand tickets, make sure you research the seller. Check their ratings, and make sure to avoid sellers with no track record. Additionally, make sure you use a secure payment method that offers buyer protection. Finally, if a deal appears too be good to be true, it probably is. 

Taylor Swift will wrap up her Eras Tour in Vancouver, performing through December 6th to 8th.

Photo Credits: Photo by Stephen Mease on Unsplash