‘Cruel Summer’ for Swifties? How Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour could fuel a ticket scam in the UK

Swifties in the UK are getting ready for the upcoming Eras tour in June.

However, it appears like Brits are in for a Cruel Summer, as banking lobby group UK Finance has warned that the rush to buy tickets for Taylor Swift’s much-awaited concert may increase purchasing scams in the country.

As per the report, the Olympic Games and Swift’s Eras tour are contending for the year’s biggest ticketing scams.

Here’s how.

Ticketing scams ahead of Taylor Swift’s concert

The alert is issued in response to the industry group’s findings that romance fraud and purchase scams in the country are reaching new highs.

Purchase scams involve paying in advance for items or services — like designer clothes or concert tickets — that the victim never receives. Such scams typically target people via social media fake advertisements or auction websites.

Purchase scams are often linked to big events in the calendar, according to Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance, thus Taylor Swift is “going to be a risk this year.”

“We see a cycle of scams changing throughout the year… the Olympics and Taylor Swift are probably the two biggest ones for this year,” he told The Guardian.

Notably, a report released by Lloyds Bank in April disclosed that Swifties had lost a grand total of £1 million due to fraudulent ticket purchases in advance of her next UK tour.

Each victim lost £332 on average, while in other cases they lost more than £1,000, as per Economic Times.

More than 600 patrons of the bank came forward to disclose financial losses, reported CNN.

The bank said at the time that victims were losing £133 on average as a result of all concert ticket scams.

“Tickets for big events such as the Olympics, Euro 2024, Glastonbury or Taylor Swift sell out quickly and people often look online for better offers to avoid missing out. Criminals use this as an opportunity to try and trick you into purchasing tickets that are either fraudulent or don’t exist,” BBC News quoted UK Finance’s Andy Donald as warning.

Billions stolen last year

UK Finance report revealed criminals stole a whopping £1.2 billion through payment fraud and scams last year.

The huge tally was nonetheless down by four per cent in 2022, according to the group’s annual report on fraud.

This small drop in cases was attributed to tighter bank security controls and greater public awareness of the tricks deployed by fraudsters.

“It is really positive that financial losses are down… but the amounts that are being stolen are still absolutely staggering,” The Guardian cited Donaldson.

Approximately 60 per cent of the total £1.2 billion was unauthorised transactions on payment cards and online banking. Such fraud almost invariably results in the victims getting their money back, as per the UK outlet which cited the report.

The remaining £460 million is fraudulent authorised push payment (APP) transactions. Here, a person gets duped into sending money to an impostor.

Approximately two-thirds of the 232,429 APP fraud cases that occurred last year were purchase scams, which saw a 12 per cent increase in cases.

There were 156,516 purchase scam cases, a 34 per cent increase from the previous year. The fraudsters stole £86 million in total.

In terms of both numbers, this was the largest since UK Finance began monitoring APP fraud scams in 2020.

In 2023, victims of APP fraud received a total of £287 million back, which equates to 62 per cent of the total loss. This represents an increase from 59 per cent in 2022.

Other scams that are common

The other most common fraud was romance fraud, where scammers tricked people into believing they were in a relationship.

In terms of losses and cases, such scams were up by 17 per cent to £37 million and 14 per cent, respectively.

“The money stolen funds serious organised crime and victims often suffer emotional damage as fraud is a pernicious and manipulative crime,” Donaldson told BBC.

Card identity theft cases also rose in 2023, with losses up by 53 per cent to £79 million.

In such scams, criminals who are unable to persuade victims into making authorised payments, use their personal information that is stolen to either take over accounts or apply for new credit cards.

The upcoming new rules

According to BBC, to counter the fraud problem, the UK is all set to implement new rules on 7 October this year.

Meaning, the country’s service providers will have to reimburse customers who fell prey to payment scams.

However, there will be some exceptions to this rule.

According to UK Finance, the new regulations address the urgency of the fight against fraud.

“With reimbursement rules set to change, we risk even more money getting into criminal hands, unless the technology and telecommunications sectors take (proper) action to stop the fraud that proliferates on their platforms and networks,” BBC quoted Donaldson as saying.

Currently, there are several banks who have signed up for a voluntary reimbursement code.

Matt Hepburn, TSB’s fraud spokesperson, told The Guardian that it was high time that social media platforms, “stepped up with measures to urgently half the fraud epidemic they currently enable," as more than three-quarters of fraud cases start online.

Taylor Swift bill in Minnesota

For people buying tickets online for concerts, sporting events and other live events in Minnesota, so-called Taylor Swift bill was signed into law by Governor Tim Walz on 7 May.

The law, prompted by the frustration a legislator felt at not being able to buy tickets to Swift’s 2023 concert in Minneapolis, will require ticket sellers to disclose all fees upfront and prohibit resellers from selling more than one copy of a ticket, among other measures.

The law will apply to tickets purchased in Minnesota or other states for concerts or other live events held in Minnesota.

Walz signed House File 1989 — a reference to Swift’s birth year and an album with that title — at First Avenue, a popular concert venue in downtown Minneapolis.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would be at a bill signing for House File 1989 at First Avenue,” Democratic Rep. Kelly Moller, chief author of the bill, said.

Moller was among thousands of people who became stuck in ticket sales company Ticketmaster’s system after it crashed in 2022 amid the huge demand for Swift concert tickets and attacks from bots, which tried to buy tickets for resale at inflated prices. The situation led to congressional hearings but no federal legislation.

Supporters of Minnesota’s new law say the state joins Maryland as among the few states to pass protections for ticket buyers into law.

The law takes effect 1 January 2025 and applies to tickets sold on or after that date.

With inputs from agencies