Dozens of people who thought they would be seeing Taylor Swift perform in Toronto this month have reportedly fallen victim to a ticket scam totalling over $70,000, say police in the Greater Toronto Area.
Halton Regional Police Service, covering Burlington, Oakville and Milton, Ont., say they’ve received about 40 complaints in recent days from people who bought Eras Tour tickets from a third party. Those tickets turned out to be non-existent, they said.
The financial crimes unit is investigating and no arrests have been made, police said in a news release Monday.
Swift’s string of six sold-out Toronto concerts run between Nov. 14 and 23. Her last three in the tour will be in Vancouver.
Melinda Tarantino, a Burlington mom, said she’s among the Toronto ticket scam victims, having spent over $3,000 for four tickets to see the show with her two daughters, 9 and 11 years old, this weekend.
She bought the tickets last month from someone who appeared to be a local woman, Tarantino told CBC Hamilton. Tarantino said she was connected to the person through a friend.
Over the phone, the person claimed to have access to unused corporate tickets and Tarantino said she jumped at the opportunity. She’d been unsuccessful getting them through Ticketmaster, but knew how much it would mean to her girls. The person would only sell the tickets in a pack of four, she said.
“I have always been a Taylor Swift fan and then I ended up raising two Taylor Swift fans,” Tarantino said.
“Taylor Swift has kind of been the sound track to our lives — we play it in the house all the time and in the car — and I told the girls, ‘if she comes to Canada, we’ll get tickets.'”
Mom compiles list of those impacted
Last week, she said she learned through a friend the tickets likely weren’t real. She still has not received any, she added.
While the situation “sucks,” Tarantino said she decided to take action to help others.
Knowing there were likely other victims, Tarantino created an online form to collect their experiences, and encourage them to contact police.
“I thought there would be about 20 moms and their names would be in one spot for when we go to Halton police to show the impact,” Tarantino told CBC Hamilton.
“It gave me something to do, a tiny piece of, ‘well at least I’ve done something.'”
Over the past few days, Tarantino said she heard from nearly 160 people who’d thought they’d bought a total of 420 tickets from a person who used the same name to see Taylor Swift in Toronto in November.
By Tarantino’s estimation about $295,000 had been sent to the same person she thought she’d bought her tickets from.
She said she’s provided the list to Halton police.
Hamilton Police Service told CBC Hamilton it has received four Swift ticket scam complaints in the last week, but it is unclear if the cases are related. York Regional Police told CBC News it has received one complaint related to the Halton cases, and four additional fraud reports for Swift tickets unrelated to the Halton investigation.
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‘Sick to my stomach’
Another Burlington mom, Alaina Attard, also reported her situation to police.
She said she paid over $1,000 for two tickets for her and her teenaged daughter last year, expecting to get the tickets shortly before the Nov. 21 concert, but they haven’t arrived.
She was connected to a seller by the same name through an acquaintance, who’d assured her the tickets would be legitimate, Attard said.
CBC Hamilton reached out to the seller but did not receive a response before publication.
The tickets were given to her daughter as a Christmas gift and “it was a huge surprise,” said Attard. “For my daughter, it was a dream of hers to go to this concert.”
When Attard said she learned the tickets likely weren’t real, she felt “sick to my stomach.”
“I was angry, and then I quickly was very apprehensive and sad I would have to tell my daughter because I knew she’d be absolutely crushed — and she was,” Attard said.
Tarantino said if there’s any bright side, it’s the “wild sense of community” between those impacted, who’ve connected online and through word-of-mouth.
“Which is what Taylor Swift does so beautifully,” she said. “Bringing people together.”