Adelaide family left to shell out twice after falling victim to ticket scammers before Olivia Rodrigo’s Melbourne concert
These Blakeview sisters say they didn’t realise what was wrong until it was far too late.
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A Blakeview family say they had to re-buy Olivia Rodrigo’s concert tickets, worth more than $1,300, after realising they have fallen victim to online hackers, just hours before the international star’s Melbourne concert.
Die hard fans, 17, Emily, 19, and Imogen, 14, McAloon were filled with excitement when the pop sensation Rodrigo announced the Aussie leg of her world tour, ‘GUTS’.
Their parents Amanda and Ian, McAloon, 49, managed to snatch up three VIP general admission tickets from Ticketek for $450 each, for the show’s at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
“We were all trying to get these tickets,” Ms McAloon, 48, recalled.
“The girls were so excited because they were the best tickets you could get to see her.”
Mr McAloon received the ticket confirmation, and the family wasted no time planning for the concert scheduled on October 10.
On the day, Amanda and Ian dropped their daughters off at 5.45am – 15 hours before the concert – so they could line up early and secure the best spot to watch Rodrigo.
Around 8am while the trio was about 150 people from the front line, Emily checked the tickets and noticed that they were under two different names.
“We got a message from Emily saying that they have someone else’s name on the ticket,” she recalled.
“I googled it and found out that if it’s not in your name, someone has done something to the tickets.
Ms McAloon said the realisation made her “heart drop”, as they remembered an earlier incident with their Ticketek account.
“The email address on his ticket account was wrong so he couldn’t get into his account,” she said.
“He managed to get in there and he didn’t notice anything wrong, but someone had hacked into my husband’s ticket account.”
She said they then tried calling Ticketek, before going to a nearby police station to report the incident.
“They couldn’t do anything. They told us to fill out a cyber crime form online,” she said.
The couple then rushed to the ticketing section near the venue, where a ticket representative explained that their tickets had been stolen and resold on Ticketek marketplace.
“He realised they were resold online for $1 each,” she said.
“I didn’t know how I was going to tell the girls.”
Luckily, there were three remaining VIP tickets, which the couple quickly bought – bringing their total to $2,750 for two sets of three tickets.
They are now hoping to claim a refund for the stolen tickets.
A spokesman for Ticketek said all e-commerce platforms were currently experiencing a surge in phishing scams, a tactic that involves tricking people into divulging information which can give access to private accounts.
“Ticketek is aware of unauthorised access to some individual accounts via credentials that have been stolen as a result of other third-party data breaches,” the spokesman said.
“We would also like to reiterate that Ticketek accounts or individual data has not been compromised.
The spokesman said customers should immediately file a police report and contact Ticketek customer service if they believe they are victims of stolen or misappropriated property, or they bought fraudulent second-hand tickets, so Ticket can start an investigation.
Customers were also urged to change or update their passwords “at least every six months”, to act alongside their security alerts for key account changes to ensure customers are protected from bad actors.”
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Originally published as Adelaide family left to shell out twice after falling victim to ticket scammers before Olivia Rodrigo’s Melbourne concert
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