1,000 Concert Tickets Stolen And Resold By Cybercrime Crew

A cybercrime group stole nearly 1,000 concert tickets, including those for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and resold them on StubHub, raking in more than $600,000.

The scheme involved employees working for a third-party contractor in Jamaica who accessed and stole tickets from the online ticket platform. The tickets, primarily for Swift’s record-breaking tour, as well as for Adele, Ed Sheeran concerts, NBA games, and the U.S. Open, were resold at inflated prices, as reported by USA TODAY.

According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, the contractors in Jamaica obtained the URLs for tickets and forwarded them to co-conspirators in Queens, New York.

These individuals then downloaded the stolen tickets and resold them on StubHub for significant profit. The fraud took place between June 2022 and July 2023. Katz stated that the total proceeds from the scheme amounted to $635,000, reported USA TODAY.

Two individuals, Tyrone Rose, 20, from Kingston, Jamaica, and Shamara Simmons, 31, from Jamaica, Queens, were arrested last Thursday and face charges of grand larceny, computer tampering, and conspiracy.

If convicted, they could each face three to 15 years in prison. Rose, who was apprehended in New York, allegedly worked with another accomplice in Jamaica to redirect the stolen URLs.

Rose was arrested during a visit to New York and was instructed to surrender his passport, according to Katz’s office on Tuesday. Both he and Simmons pleaded not guilty and were released until their next court appearance on Friday, as reported by  AP.

The public defender’s office representing Rose declined to comment, and Simmons’ lawyers had no immediate response on Tuesday, noted AP. The theft targeted high-profile events, with the majority of stolen tickets linked to Swift’s Eras Tour, which grossed over $2.7 billion last year, says USA TODAY.

Other tickets affected included those for major concerts and sporting events. Investigators are still working to determine the full scope of the operation, including the identification of additional suspects, as reported by AP.

StubHub informed USA TODAY on Tuesday that it identified all affected orders and either replaced or refunded them. The company also ended its partnership with Sutherland Global Services.

“Upon discovering this criminal scheme, we immediately reported it to law enforcement and terminated the employees involved,” said Mark Streams, StubHub’s chief legal officer, as reported by USA TODAY.