A woman is alerting other folks of an alleged serial scammer whose apparent modus operandi is to “sell” tickets to the JJ Lin concert on Aug 19 — only to mail over blank pieces of paper to buyers.
Facebook user Christine Xtine posted about her recent experience when she very nearly lost $700 to the scammer. After lodging a police report, Christine was told that an investigation has been launched into the case as they’ve received several reports from other people about the very same scammer.
The “seller” first reached out to Christine, offering two front row tickets at cost price. Tickets to all four dates of JJ Lin’s concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium are sold out, by the way, and CAT 1 tickets cost $348 a piece.
According to Christine, she was willing to fork out $700 for a pair of the tickets out of “sympathy and pure excitement”. The scammer apparently told a “sob story about her boyfriend leaving her” and how it was “too painful to attend (the concert) without him” to sway Christine. A deal was struck, and Christine agreed to pay while the “seller” arranged to deliver the tickets by registered mail.
But then at the last minute, Christine decided that it would be much safer to transfer the money over only after she received and validated the tickets. Screenshots of their subsequent exchange on WhatsApp revealed that the “seller” got very angry — all while playing the victim of Christine’s supposed scam.
Turns out, Christine was right to be doubtful. When she received the delivery on Monday, the envelope simply contained a blank piece of paper torn from an M1 notepad. Imagine if you did transfer over the money and got that in the mail.
Soon after putting up her post on Facebook, other folks reached out to Christine, stating that they were hit by the same scammer. Unfortunately, they fell for the trick and already transferred over hundreds of dollars for the non-existent tickets.
In an update by Christine, the scammer has already taken down her Facebook profile and switched her mobile phone off. “Police urged me to advise everyone else who’ve come across this scammer to lodge a police report immediately!!!” she wrote.
On their part, official ticket vendors Sports Hub have already issued an advisory on their site that warned buyers against purchasing tickets from resellers.
“By purchasing tickets through resellers other than the authorized ticket agent, buyers take on the risk that the tickets may not be valid and we cannot guarantee the validity of the tickets,” the statement read.
“No refunds will be made to anyone who has made a purchase from non-authorised points of sale. Additionally, we will investigate cases and work with the event organizer to take all necessary actions.”
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