Live Nation’s Ticketmaster has announced that it’s pausing ticket transfers for upcoming Taylor Swift shows in North America following the recent flurry of reports of fans seeing their tickets disappear from their accounts on the ticketing platform.
The ticketing company hasn’t explicitly stated that the move is in response to the disappearing tickets problem, although it has also been pushing out a statement about its efforts to keep tickets secure. “Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable”, it declares in that statement. As a result, it adds, “Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans”.
Fans will still be able to transfer their tickets to other people, but not until three days before each concert. Swift has shows in Miami later this month, beginning on 18 Oct, with subsequent dates in New Orleans, Indianapolis, Toronto and Vancouver.
Various US media outlets have reported on concert-goers seeing their digital tickets for concerts, including Taylor Swift shows, disappear from their Ticketmaster accounts. Hackers are using the ticketing company’s ticket transfer tools to move the tickets to another account - without the original buyer’s approval - most likely with the aim of then selling the tickets on the secondary market.
There was speculation that tickets were being fraudulently transferred more frequently of late as a result of the big hack of Ticketmaster’s platform earlier this year. However, the ticketing firm is adamant no passwords were taken in that incident. In most cases, it says, the fraudulent ticket transfers begin with the hacker hacking into the customer’s email account.
Its recent statement on ticket security adds, “The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts - especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate”.
Despite the recent disappearing tickets problem, Ticketmaster also says, “Overall, our digital ticketing innovations have greatly reduced fraud compared to the days of paper tickets and duplicated PDFs. Having that digital history is also how we are able to investigate the situation and restore fans’ tickets”.
Victims of the disappearing tickets problem have been able to get their tickets back, although some have told media that dealing with Ticketmaster’s customer support has been frustrating and time-consuming, with some waiting weeks for their tickets to reappear.