Deb Knight tricked into paying $1200 for fake Taylor Swift tickets
Journalist and presenter Deb Knight has revealed how she became caught up in a ticket scam for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
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Journalist and presenter Deb Knight has revealed she was fooled by a ticket scam for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Just days out from the superstar’s seven-concert tour of her mega Eras tour, Knight has told how she handed over
$1200 after she thought she had found a reliable route to secure the tickets for her young daughter.
“A really good friend, who I’ve known all my life, contacted me and said, ‘do you still want Taylor Swift tickets?’” Knight told A Current Affair.
“It was my daughter’s eighth birthday and getting my hands on these tickets would be the best present ever.
“My friend put me in contact with her friend who had the tickets – or so I thought.”
She had received a phone call from a friend who said her cousin was selling tickets. But to everyone’s ignorance, the friend’s Facebook account had been hacked.
Knight promised to pay half the cost as a bond, then pay the rest after she had seen the tickets, which she said looked “unbelievably legitimate”.
But there was one problem.
“The difference is a genuine Taylor Swift ticket in an Apple Wallet right now does not have that barcode,” tech expert Trevor Long said.
Alarm bells started ringing when the so-called seller said the payment had not come through, but by then it was too late.
Even though Knight contacted her bank straight away, there was nothing to be done: she was $1200 lighter and had no Taylor Swift tickets.
“I realised I’d been scammed. I felt sick to the stomach, absolutely humiliated. I also felt embarrassed and ashamed.”
“I was reluctant to speak publicly about this but I think we’ve got to.
“We have to normalise it so people feel there’s less of a stigma about it.
“It happens to everyone, even Deb Knight – it’s disgusting, what’s happening, so something needs to be done.”
Swift will perform three concerts in Melbourne from February 16 to 18, and four in Sydney from February 23 to 26.
Police have warned Swifties who missed out on tickets to the singer’s upcoming Eras tour not to fall prey to ticketing scams.
Victoria Police said there had been more than 250 reports of ticketing scams for the Eras Tour alone since tickets went on sale in June last year.
Authorities say the safest way to buy Eras Tour tickets is from an authorised ticket seller such as the Ticketek marketplace.
If you buy tickets from friends on social media, police advise contacting the friend independently of social media to check that they have not been hacked.
Originally published as Deb Knight tricked into paying $1200 for fake Taylor Swift tickets
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