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‘This looked legit’: Mom scammed trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets for daughter

Click to play video: 'Taylor Swift ticket scam stings Vaughan, Ont. mom'
Taylor Swift ticket scam stings Vaughan, Ont. mom
WATCH: A Vaughan, Ont., mother who wanted to surprise her daughter with Taylor Swift concert tickets instead leaned an expensive lesson. As Sean O’Shea reports, the $1,600 money transfer was a bust and she wants to warn other parents. – Aug 15, 2023

When Einav Feldman heard Taylor Swift was coming to Toronto for six shows next year, she knew she had to try to get tickets for her daughter, saying it would make her overjoyed.

Feldman registered on Ticketmaster and like so many others, got on the waiting list.

Feldman’s daughter was away at camp, returning Tuesday, and she wanted to surprise her with the tickets when she came home.

Feeling doubtful that she would be able to score tickets through Ticketmaster, Feldman looked around online and saw a social media post that she thought was legit.

“I went on Twitter and I saw this post and and I did my research — I thought I did my research,” she told 640 Toronto on Tuesday.

“It looked all verified. And now … I don’t know anything about Ticketmaster and how tickets work, so I asked my friends who purchased concert tickets all the time, and they do sell some themselves, and they all reassured me, thinking this looked legit. So I went along with it, assuming my daughter is coming back from camp actually today, and that I’d be able to make her so happy by showing her the tickets because that was her one wish.

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Click to play video: 'Taylor Swift fans miss out on show after flight cancelled'
Taylor Swift fans miss out on show after flight cancelled

Feldman said she is now out $1,600 after she and her friend sent an e-transfer to the social media user for four tickets.

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When she was asked to e-transfer money for the tickets, Feldman said she felt uneasy about that, but was reassured by others that sometimes people sell tickets through e-transfer.

“So I went ahead with it,” she said.

“You know, you have that gut feeling that tells you ‘Don’t do it,’ but at the same time, you think about your child because you’re just trying to make them so happy.

“There was so much back and forth that it just seemed like it was a legit person.”

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Feldman said once the money was sent, she got another email requesting a “transfer tax fee” of $250.

“That’s when I knew it all went wrong,” she said.

Click to play video: 'Toronto fans anxiously wait for news of Taylor Swift tickets'
Toronto fans anxiously wait for news of Taylor Swift tickets

“That’s when I begged and begged for my money back. And sadly, that’s when I got ignored and never heard from that person again.”

Feldman called her bank right away and spoke to the fraud department, but said she was told there was nothing they could do.

She said she thought the bank would have been able to track where the e-transfer was sent.

“I was just told, ‘Sorry, nothing we can do. It’s an e-transfer. There is nothing we can do,'” she said.

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“I speak out today because I just want to make others aware of my mistake…. Always take the recourse and not transfer this way. Go through Ticketmaster.”

Click to play video: 'Taylor Swift: Digging into supply and demand of Eras Tour tickets'
Taylor Swift: Digging into supply and demand of Eras Tour tickets

Feldman said she was going to pick up her daughter on Tuesday and break the news to her about the whole situation.

“She knows nothing,” Feldman said.

She said she probably won’t be trying to get tickets to see Taylor Swift in Toronto again.

“It’s left a bad taste,” she said.

“I don’t think we will be going to the concert, sadly.”

Swift will perform at the Rogers Centre from Nov. 14 to 16, 2024 and then Nov. 21 to 23, 2024.

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— with a file from Saba Aziz

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