Swiftie Blasts Ticketmaster: ‘They’re Encouraging People to Steal Tickets’

Hundreds of Ticketmaster consumers have complained of their tickets disappearing from their accounts over the past few months. Now, as Taylor Swift is touring across North America for her final leg of the Eras Tour, Swifties are the latest to feel the burn.

One Swift fan, Chelsea, is a popular makeup artist and content creator. The Swiftie (@chelsea_bananas) posted a video on Tiktok to share her story after her Swift tickets were “stolen” from her Ticketmaster account. Chelsea explained that she purchased tickets to Swift’s show over a year ago, however, as the concert grew closer, she received emails that her tickets were “successfully transferred” to two strangers. Once she logged into her Ticketmaster account, Chelsea saw that her tickets were not in her account, although she never authorized a transfer.

While Chelsea talked to Ticketmaster’s customer service department, she said they did offer much help.

“[The representative] puts in a claim with their fraud department…[and] doesn’t give me a time frame,” Chelsea said, adding that a worker told her to wait for an email or a phone call.

As of Monday, the 5-minute video has amassed over 800,000 views.

@chelsea_bananas Sorry NOT sorry for yelling at the end. DO BETTER @Ticketmaster !!!!!!! @Tiffany Van Decker @Taylor Nation @Taylor Swift #ticketmaster #taylorswift #stolentickets #indy ♬ original sound – Chelsea Bananas 🍌

Chelsea noted that she is not alone, as she’s heard similar stories from thousands of other concertgoers and sports fans.

“Ticketmaster has absolutely zero security on their website or their app, literally none,” Chelsea said. “By not protecting our tickets, not only is Ticketmaster allowing this to happen, they’re encouraging people to steal our tickets.”

| READ: Dozens of Fans See Tickets Stolen From Ticketmaster Accounts | 

The complaints have been rolling-in; another Swiftie in Connecticut had a pair of $3,500 Taylor Swift tickets stolen from her account. She said that someone had hacked her Ticketmaster account and swiped the pair. The tickets were restored within hours after MarketWatch reached out to Ticketmaster. Similarly, an Indiana resident lost her Swift tickets vanish from her account and after numerous attempts contacting Ticketmaster, she reached out to the TV station WTHR. Only after the station contacted Ticketmaster were the tickets restored to her account.

One family from Gig Harbor, Washington told the local news outlet KIRO 7 they are out more than $1,200 for 14 tickets. Virginia Lasky told the publication that she was getting ready for work when multiple emails from Ticketmaster suddenly came in — notifying her that her tickets to upcoming shows and musicals were transferred from her Ticketmaster account to someone else.

“When I clicked on the tickets, they had one-by-one all been transferred and claimed,” Lasky said, noting that they were transferred to a total stranger’s account.

These instances of Ticketmaster account hacks follow a massive data breach earlier this year. The “hacker” group ShinyHunters claimed it cracked the Ticketmaster system and accessed some 1.3 terabytes of data, which includes names, addresses, credit card numbers, phone numbers, and payment details, involving 560 million customers globally. The information was said to be up for sale on the dark web, with an asking price of $500,000.

The breach led to a class action lawsuit, which alleges Live Nation and Ticketmaster failed to implement “adequate and reasonable” cybersecurity procedures and protocols, enabling an “unauthorized third party to gain access to and obtain former and current Ticketmaster customers’ private information from Ticketmaster’s internal computer systems.”

While more than half a billion user accounts were reportedly affected in the breach, Ticketmaster said that user’s passwords were not exposed in the incident, telling KIRO 7 that “the vast majority of what we’re seeing is because scammers have accessed a fan’s email account.”

Additionally, Ticketmaster is currently the target of an antitrust lawsuit alongside its parent company Live Nation by the Department of Justice and 39 states, as well as the District of Columbia. The suit aims to break-up the pair, alleging monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices.