B.C. man wants answers from Ticketmaster after Toronto Taylor Swift tickets vanish

A British Columbia resident has come forward after claiming that Taylor Swift tickets were stolen from his Ticketmaster account.

“I never thought anything like this would happen,” Jeremy Brady told Consumer Matters.

The northern B.C. resident purchased two Taylor Swift tickets through Ticketmaster in August 2023 for over $2,000 for the November concert in Toronto. However, in September, Brady discovered that the tickets had disappeared from his Ticketmaster account and were transferred to someone else.

“I saw an email from Ticketmaster saying I had accessed my account from Corpus Christi, Texas, which obviously was strange,” Brady explained.

He then received another email from Ticketmaster stating: “Your Ticket Transfer Is On The Way To Joss.” Brady said he was in shock and immediately contacted Ticketmaster for assistance but received no answers for over two weeks.

“The biggest frustration is — one, not being able to talk to a person — and two, just getting no update,” he remarked.

Consumer Matters intervened on Brady’s behalf, and a day later, his tickets were restored to his account.

Ticketmaster commented, “Fans should be aware unauthorized ticket transfers are often a result of poor password management, like using the same password across multiple websites.”

Brady expressed gratitude for Global News’ involvement, saying, “Until I talked to Consumer Matters and you guys reached out, absolutely nothing was happening.”

However, he still seeks an explanation from Ticketmaster regarding why his tickets vanished in the first place. “It’s just unfortunate; Ticketmaster, when it comes to customer service, doesn’t seem too interested in helping their customers,” he stated.

In July, Ticketmaster informed Canadian customers of a data security incident where an unauthorized third party accessed information from a cloud database hosted by a third-party data services provider.

Technology expert Andy Baryer from Handy Andy Media believes this incident could have been avoided if Ticketmaster had implemented better cybersecurity measures. “Ticketmaster had no incentive to enhance their security even after the recent breach. It seems they haven’t learned their lesson, and I think the reason is there is no competition in that industry,” he said.

Scammers are increasingly finding creative ways to deceive would-be concertgoers. Last month, police in Ontario issued warnings about the heightened risks of purchasing Taylor Swift tickets on Facebook, stating that scammers are hacking into legitimate accounts to make fraudulent offers.

Taylor Swift is scheduled to perform six shows of her Eras Tour at Toronto’s Rogers Centre over two weekends — from November 14 to 16 and November 21 to 23.