Singapore is the Southeast Asian epicenter of Swifties come the March 2-4 and 7-9, 2024 weekend, as Taylor Swift makes her awaited “Eras Tour” stop, performing tracks across her 10-studio album discography.
A Swift performance always marks a high demand for tickets, which sold out eight hours following its release. Due to the scarcity of supply, Filipinos and many of her devotees resorted to scalpers and secondary market sources to witness their Pop-idol in the flesh.
According to an exclusive from GMA 24 Oras Weekend’s Jonathan Andal, a fraudulent online seller victimized PH Swifties amounting to ₱15 million, promising passes to Swift’s back-to-back weekend in Singapore.
Mentioned to have dealt primarily on the “Eras Tour” Facebook group, the scammer went through legitimacy checks by its members (which many have seemed to vouch for). Further building on his authenticity, he provided proof of previous transactions and a selfie together with a government-registered I.D during private conversations with clients. He also granted customers a contract of sale, integrating a fraud and liability clause, punishable by law for not delivering on the promised agreement.
Over a hundred Filipinos brought the case forward to the National Bureau of Investigation, stating the respective amount lost, as several even mentioned the lengths taken to avail of the tickets.
“₱70,000 po yung total. Halo po ng pinag-ipunan po namin noong college, pati scholarship money po ng boyfriend ko na nadamay po,” an annonymous victim mentioned to GMA Integrated News.
(Around ₱70,000 was used for the tickets. It was a combination of our savings in college and my boyfriend’s scholarship funds.)
Sparkle GMA Artist Center’s Sofia Pablo was one of the casualties, taking her experience to social media. The 17-year-old actress-musician noted that the fraud disclosed “a fake email screenshot of Ticketmaster voiding the seller's account due to reselling tickets.”
With rumors of the Singapore’s exclusive ties to the Grammy Award-winning artist’s concert rights, Filipinos and other neighboring countries are “forced” to flock to Kallang’s National Stadium to witness her return following a near-10-year regional hiatus. Standard ticket prices range from SGD108 (₱4,425.77) to SGD348 (₱14,260.83) as its VIP packages reach up to SGD1,228 (₱50,322.69).
Mitigating any further damage, Singapore-based consumer marketplace Carousell has prohibited the selling of “Eras Tour” tickets on its platform, considering the prevalence of ticket scams leading up to her shows internationally. The regional-based suspension affects its “Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan” arms from March 1-9, 2024, as all existing listings are subject to removal by February 26, 2024.
