SINGAPORE – As entertainment acts return to Singapore in full swing, at least 137 people have been duped in fake concert ticket scams since March, losing about $170,000 in total.

This is a sharp increase from the 136 such cases reported from January to November in 2022.

The police said on Thursday that the latest victims had chanced upon advertisements for concert tickets on various e-commerce platforms, including Carousell and China’s Xiaohongshu. Some of these advertisements were also put up on Twitter.

To convince victims to make advance payments for the tickets, the scammers would create a false sense of urgency by claiming that the sales were time sensitive, or that they were limited.

Victims realised they were scammed only when they did not receive the tickets they had paid for. In some instances, they received fake tickets and were later denied entry at concerts.

The police advised the public to purchase tickets from only authorised or reputable sellers and arrange for physical meet-ups with the sellers to verify the authenticity of the tickets before paying.

“The police would like to remind the public to be discerning when shopping online, especially when purchasing concert tickets from online third-party resellers.”

Concert ticket scams have been prevalent over the past year. Between January and November 2022, 136 police reports were filed in relation to such scams, with total losses amounting to at least $111,000, or more than 53 times the amount lost in the same period in 2021.

For more information on scams, visit scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688.

Anyone with information on such scams may call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000 or submit information confidentially online at police.gov.sg/iwitness