News 4 Investigates: Taylor Swift fans becoming a target for scammers

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) -- As the Kansas City dates for the Taylor Swift Eras tour gets closer, locals are still looking for tickets. This has created an explosion of ticket scammers.

Nine-year-old Marley told News 4 Investigates she is a lover of Taylor’s music, and can’t even pick a favorite song.

“They all have their own unique traits, I like everything about them,” Marley said.

In her own words, Marley described herself as a “hardcore Swiftie,” enchanted for quite a while.

“She has been an important thing to me ever since I was born,” Marley said.

Like many in the St. Louis area, Marley was sad to see the Eras Tour pass over St. Louis. Following a Ticketmaster fiasco, scoring tickets for nearby cities also turned out to be trouble.

When Marley’s mom Jennifer Quinn thought she’d found someone selling their seats on Facebook, she was excited.

“I think emotionally I was so excited to give this surprise that I wanted it to be real, that I ignored some of the red flags,” Quinn said.

Because it seemed like an active Facebook account, Quinn thought it was legit.

The seller sent Quinn what looked like a screenshot of their tickets, saying, “I totally understand you being skeptical but I’m not in the business of screwing anyone...I just can’t do that to hurt anyone.”

Never In Quinn’s wildest dreams did she think someone would make that up, so she tried to send more than $1,000 to the seller.

“As I put the information for the ticket person, my bank kicked me out of my account, that was the big red flag when I was like, okay,” Quinn said.

Sarah Wetzel with the Better Business Bureau said ticket scammers are getting more sophisticated and would-be buyers are losing an average of $1,200.

“You really have to empower yourself, do your research, because we hear of so many people losing money,” Wetzel said.

The Eras tour will be in Kansas City on July 7 and 8, so it is important for buyers in the area to be aware. Local Facebook groups, especially those targeting Swifties, are filled with scammers.

Trustworthy secondhand sites, like StubHub, are selling nosebleeds for thousands of dollars, so reasonably priced tickets are a red flag.

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” Wetzel explained.

After almost being scammed out of $1,000, Jennifer was seeing red, but she’s calmed down now. She says it was a life lesson.

Quinn and her daughter hope to find tickets for her next tour if they cannot find any for the upcoming Kansas City stop.

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