WELLINGTON, Fla. — A Wellington couple called WPTV after losing $1,100 to a fake Taylor Swift ticket sale and now they want to warn others.
Taylor Swift is bringing her record-breaking Eras Tour to South Florida's Hard Rock Stadium this October.
So many "Swifties," and parents of "Swifties," are trying to find affordable tickets.
Atul and Alka Khungar in Wellington have been looking for months.
"She lives and breathes Taylor Swift," Alka Khungar said talking about her 11-year-old daughter, Kaniska.
"She made a project about how to become a Swiftie," Atul Khungar said.
"And she got an A grade," Alka added.
A few days ago, the couple thought they found a good ticket deal that was posted on a Wellington community Facebook group.
"There was no question or feeling of even having a doubt," Alka said. "It was more of excitement that morning that, 'Wow, there's four tickets available.'"
"They said $1,200, but we negotiated for $1,100," Atul added.
The couple told WPTV that they paid through the Zelle app but never got the tickets.
"It just made us realize that wow, we had all these red flags and our emotions had the best of us," Alka said.
Verified sites like SeatGeek and Stub Hub are averaging re-sale tickets between $2,000 to $3,000 a piece, leaving a lot of fans looking other places for tickets.
Alan Crowetz, a cybersecurity expert with Infostream, said Swifties who are looking for tickets need to have their guard up.
"If I came and knocked on someone's door and said I have really cheap Taylor Swift tickets, everybody would have red flags," Crowetz said. "But for some reason, if I do the exact same thing on social media, TikTok, LinkedIn, whatever it is, and I put something out there that looks like an offer and a pretty picture with it, suddenly my credibility goes through the ceiling."
Crowetz said fans of Swift should avoid deals far under what you can find on verified re-sale sites because they’re likely too good to be true.
He said fans should also be wary of sellers asking for payment through Vemmo, Cash App or Zelle.
Also, in the age of social media hacking, even if you get a message on social media from someone you know offering tickets, try to contact them through another source first to verify that it's really them.
"A big red button we get all the time is, 'But it came from somebody I know,'" Crowetz said. "Just because it came from a friend, don't put your shields down. That is the go-to way of getting people."
