Happy ending after Tottenham mother scammed $1,800 trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets

A Tottenham mother was devastated to learn her attempt to buy Taylor Swift tickets at Rogers Centre for her daughter resulted in her losing $1,800.

Dana Caputo bought two tickets to the sold-out concert on Facebook only to find out the person she bought it from scammed her.

“A friend of mine called me and told me that she saw on Facebook that her friend was selling four tickets to Taylor Swift,” said Caputo.

Swift will be the first artist ever to perform a six-show stint at the downtown Toronto stadium in November as a part of her record-breaking Eras Tour. It will also mark her first Canadian tour dates since 2018.

“I was trying to get tickets for my daughter, and I said it was a perfect time because it was her birthday,” she added.

Caputo said she transferred $1,800 to the person selling the tickets. “They kept coming back to me asking me for more money on top of that, and that’s when I knew that it was a scam,” she shared.

She tried contacting the bank to see if she could get her money back, but they could not help her.

ESET’s Chief Security Evangelist, Tony Anscombe, said there are a few ways to avoid getting scammed in a situation like this.

“Potentially get all three of you on the phone at the same time and do the transaction that way with your friend in the middle,” explained Anscombe.

“It’s challenging because this transaction took place over social media …. it’s not a transaction platform,” he added. “So taking visa or credit cards is complicated, so I would step out and actually use something like PayPal [which] has an element of built insurance.”

In Caputo’s case, there has been a happy new development. Rogers is presenting the Toronto shows, and after Rogers hears their story, they want to surprise Dana and Gia with two tickets to the Canadian venue.

Despite the happy ending, many don’t experience the same outcome. Experts strongly suggest exercising caution when buying concert tickets or anything online.

Ticketmaster has begun enforcing new rules regarding how fans transfer Taylor Swift tickets amid a surge in reported scams. The ticket sales giant recently updated its website to state that ticket transfers for Swift’s concerts can only be made 72 hours before the event.

This is because of a spike in reported hacks to Ticketmaster accounts that have affected Swift’s Canadian fans and ticket holders for other events operated by the company.