By JADA BAS
Published: | Updated:
A heartbroken mother lost out on £400 when she thought she had bought Taylor Swift tickets for her daughter's birthday.
Amanda Beasley tried to buy her daughter Lilly, 21, tickets for the sold out show through a seller on Facebook, but after transferring the money she was mocked by the individual.
'At the beginning we thought there's always an idea that it could possibly be a scam, but we were just so hopeful because we tried all other ways of getting the Taylor Swift tickets.
'We were a bit blind by the hope,' she told Good Morning Britain.
It was when PayPal had put her payment on hold that red flags were raised about the legitimacy of the transaction.
'When we transferred the money it was held and nobody knew why, PayPal couldn't tell us why.
'I was asking the person that I was speaking to and they said they didn't know why.
'So at that point I thought something's going on.'
Amanda Beasley (right) lost out on £400 when she tried to buy her daughter Lilly, 21, Taylor Swift tickets for the sold out show through a seller on Facebook
But after she transferred the money, the seller laughed at her on a call and said 'you've been scammed'
How to avoid ticket scams
Cybersecurity expert Jake Moore shared his advice on how to avoid ticket scams.
'The scammers are working in huge operational gangs and they know exactly what they're doing. They're targeting people who are emotionally invested in wanting those tickets.'
He added how important it is to stick to the official sites like the artist's website or on the box office from the venue you're going to.
Your money is most protected through PayPal or when using a credit card if the transaction is over £100, he advised.
Paypal hold the money before it is sent to the sender to give you the chance to get it back in case of any issues.
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Ms Beasley called the scammer, who had an 'America, African' accent, who she said laughed in her face.
She added: 'In the end, because I just kept calling them to annoy them, they answered and said "you've lost your money, you've been scammed," and laughed.
'By this point we knew, but I was just so upset because it was Lilly's 21st and we tried all other ways for getting the tickets.
'It would have been the best present I could have ever got her in her whole life.'
Lilly said: 'It was absolutely gutting. It was the high of "I'm going to see Taylor Swift" and then the low of "I'm not going and my mum's also been scammed".'
It comes as ticket fraud has surged by 47 per cent in the last year with Action Fraud reporting losses of nearly 10 million pounds to scammers in 2024.
The seller wasn't a small company or a dealer of some kind, but an individual claiming to be a parent and that they could no longer attend.
'It was a friend of a friend on Facebook, we checked out the profile, it wasn't a new profile it had been there for years.
'We checked it out, it looked legitimate,' said Ms Beasley.
'They were selling the tickets for the price that they paid them for which I thought was a little bit suspect.
'However they said they were going to sell the tickets at cost because their daughter couldn't go due to illness.'
Taylor SwiftFacebookGood Morning Britain
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