Fans are Warned Over Mysterious Ticketmaster scam
Growing concerns surround Ticketmaster tickets as customers across the globe report shocking cases of their passes vanishing from accounts and reappearing for resale online.
For some, the discovery has been gutting. Parents say tickets worth thousands were bought for children only to disappear days later.
“I started to freak out,” Nick, a father who spoke with NBC, recalled. “For our son, we got tickets to Imagine Dragons, and for our daughter, Taylor Swift. She’s eight years old and is a huge Swiftie.”
The panic didn’t end there. “Indeed, my tickets were gone,” he added. “Both for Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift. And as you can imagine, pricey tickets… we’re talking thousands and thousands of dollars.
I could see my tickets for sale on StubHub. I tell customer service this, and [they said], ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ ”
Ticketmaster insists the system is still secure, stressing that their digital system is designed to reduce fraud compared with old-style paper tickets.
A spokesperson told PEOPLE: “Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs.
Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets in nearly every case.”
They continued: “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.”
While some users like Nick eventually recovered their tickets through persistence, others weren’t as lucky.
Dan Wall, Executive Vice President at Live Nation, said the breaches often stem from weak passwords.
“If you haven’t updated your account recently and if you’re using a password you use in a lot of different places, they can get into your account,” he explained.
Ticketmaster is urging fans to set “a strong unique password for all accounts, especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate.”
This latest wave of complaints comes months after Ticketmaster admitted to a major data breach in April 2024. Sensitive data, including encrypted card information, was exposed. Customers were informed by email or post.
In September, Ticketmaster Senior Vice President Kaitlyn Henrich insisted the firm “invests more in security and verification than the rest of the industry combined.”
She claimed that passwords were not stolen during the breach and that hackers targeted a third-party database.
The ongoing drama leaves UK fans wondering whether their Ticketmaster tickets are safe. Big-name events, from Taylor’s Eras Tour to Premier League football institutions, remain high-value targets for fraudsters.
The advice is simple: update your word, cover your accounts nearly, and act presto if something feels off.
Because in the moment’s digital age, indeed, the ticket in your fund might not really be yours.
