[ad_1]
Supplied
Luke Combs plays his first New Zealand show on Wednesday night.
Dozens of fans of American country music singer Luke Combs have been conned out of tickets to his New Zealand concert by a seller in the deep south.
The Beautiful Crazy singer/songwriter performs his first ever show in New Zealand at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Wednesday night, but some fans have been left without a ticket and out of pocket for that show.
That is because a Dunedin reseller has allegedly scammed concertgoers of their money, after promising tickets to the show – and in some cases accomodation in Auckland.
One unlucky fan, Jess Cooper, 35, said she paid $954 for three tickets and accommodation in April.
Screenshots of the tickets from the scammer’s Ticketmaster account, showed tickets under her name, as well as account, seat and row numbers.
Alarm bells rang when Cooper and her friends were unable to get the tickets when they were released on the official ticketing website.
Supplied
Jess Cooper, of Christchurch, was cheated out of Combs tickets.
After concerns were raised with the Dunedin reseller, including Cooper going to police, the tickets were released last Wednesday – a week out from the concert.
But as quickly as they arrived, they were taken away, with the Dunedin reseller allegedly withdrawing them as the original ticket holder.
“That’s how she’s been doing it. She’s been sending the same group of tickets to everyone, then retrieves them back,” Cooper alleged.
“You can literally see them in the app. From what your account shows you, the tickets are there.”
Cooper believed through other disgruntled ticket buyers that the scammer bought a handful of legitimate tickets, but rotated those through dozens of people.
As for Cooper’s accommodation, that was also cancelled by the scammer. Flights, which cost $1200, were refunded by Air New Zealand, Cooper said.
The trio had saved for six months’ to get to the concert.
Cooper was sad not to be at the concert to watch Combs, who she discovered during lockdown, and “he really got me through it”.
Jeremy Cowart/Supplied
Cooper is gutted she won’t get to see Combs perform.
‘’Since all this happened I haven’t been able to listen to him without crying.’’
Do you know more: please email hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz
A police spokesperson confirmed they had received a report from the victim, and others around the country who had allegedly fallen victim to the same Dunedin reseller.
The matter was at ‘case assessment’ with police considering any potential next steps, she said.
Criminal charges would depend on the exact nature of a particular case, with a person potentially facing an obtaining by deception charge, police said.
Unfortunately, this sort of scam was common, the spokesperson said, and police’s advice was to buy tickets through legitimate ticket websites, “unless you are 100% sure the sale is legitimate”.
There were many ways scammers could fool buyers, including a screenshot of an actual ticket, although sometimes they can be faked. Another way was for a seller to arrive at the concert before the person who bought the ticket, leaving that person unable to gain entry.
For more information about ticket scams, read this advice from Newsafe New Zealand.
[ad_2]