#Singapore, #SingaporePolice, #TaylorSwift, #Coldplay
IBNS-CMEDIA: At least four people, including three women, have been arrested in Singapore for their involvement in a ticket scam concerning concerts of Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Yoasobi, Joker Xue and Enhypen.
The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted between 31 January 2024 and 6 February 2024 by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), seven Police Land Divisions, Carousell and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).
Singapore Police Force said since January 2024 at least 583 victims have fallen prey, with total losses amounting to at least $223,000.
In these cases, scammers pretending to be “sellers” would post concert tickets for sale on online platforms such as Telegram, Carousell, Twitter, Facebook and Xiao Hong Shu, police said.
Victims who expressed interest to purchase the tickets would be redirected to contact the sellers on WhatsApp or Telegram or WeChat.
“In some cases, the sellers provided fake screenshots or videos of the tickets and / or the ticket purchase receipts. The sellers would promise to email the tickets or transfer tickets to the victims’ Ticketmaster accounts once the payment was successful,” the police said.
Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when the sellers asked for additional payments, delayed delivery of tickets, become uncontactable, or when the tickets were found to be invalid on the concert day.”
During the one-week operation, officers from the CAD and the seven Police Land Divisions arrested the four persons through simultaneous island-wide operations.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the four persons had allegedly facilitated the scam cases by opening new bank accounts and relinquishing them to the scammers, or relinquishing their Singpass credentials, and bank accounts and/or Internet banking credentials, for monetary gains,” police said.
Another seven men and four women, including a 15-year-old male teenager, are also assisting in investigations.
