Redditor says EXO ticket seller on Carousell delayed refunds, at least 14 people may be affected
A fan of K-pop group EXO says she and her friends spent weeks waiting for concert tickets before eventually getting their S$4,000 back from a woman who claimed to be part of the concert organiser team.
In a Reddit post published on 21 Aug, the buyer said the seller, whom she referred to as “CF”, approached her after she posted a “Want To Buy” listing on Carousell.
Source: r/SgTea on Reddit
Although the full amount was eventually refunded, the buyer said the experience caused considerable stress and uncertainty for her and her friends.
Seller allegedly claimed to have entertainment industry connections
When CF first contacted the buyer on 5 July, she allegedly claimed to be part of the EXO concert organiser team and said she had access to “internal tickets”.
According to the buyer, CF appeared knowledgeable about the entertainment industry and spoke extensively about her purported experience working in it.
The buyer also found interactions between CF and people in Singapore’s entertainment industry on CF’s private Instagram account, which added to her impression that the seller might have genuine industry connections.
Source: @weareone.exo on Instagram
However, she told MS News that she was never able to independently verify whether CF was actually connected to the entertainment industry or the concert organiser.
CF also showed her Singpass during a video call, and the buyer said the photograph matched the woman she was speaking to. Her name reportedly matched the details shown on PayNow and Google Pay as well.
Taken together, these checks gave the buyer and her friends confidence that they were dealing with the person CF claimed to be.
The buyer said CF also made comments that appeared to lend credibility to her claims.
At one point, CF allegedly said she had been held up in a briefing for EXO’s concert while the group was waiting for their tickets.
Image courtesy of buyer
“During a call on 9 July, she elaborated that the Korean management had requested that the barricade be moved backwards because one of the members had an injury,” the buyer told MS News.
“Interestingly, about a week later, one of the members publicly revealed that he had a neck injury. This was one of the things that made us believe that she might genuinely have been connected to the concert organiser.”
Buyer transferred S$4,000 over three days
Between 5 and 7 July, the buyer and her friends transferred a total of S$4,000 to CF as a roughly 75% deposit for the tickets.
They first transferred S$1,500 on 5 July, followed by S$700 on 6 July and S$1,800 on 7 July.
CF initially told them they would receive the tickets during the week of 13 July.
However, on 8 July, she allegedly claimed that she had secured too many internal tickets and was unable to pay for them.
Source: r/SgTea on Reddit
According to the buyer, CF then asked whether the group could pay the remaining amount upfront to help her resolve the situation.
They declined, as they did not want to transfer any more money before receiving the tickets.
CF allegedly later asked whether she could borrow money from them using a branded bag as collateral, an offer the group also rejected.
Meet-ups repeatedly postponed as ticket delays continued
As the promised ticket collection date approached, the buyer said she and her friends became increasingly concerned.
“CF kept claiming that she could give us free merchandise since she’s the organiser, [so] we wanted to use this to lure her out for a meet-up and to verify that there’s some truth to her words,” the buyer told MS News.
They arranged to meet her on 12 July, but the buyer said several planned meetings were subsequently postponed.
The group eventually met CF at Chagee at Junction 8 on 16 July, where she allegedly handed them some merchandise.
Image courtesy of buyer
“She told us that she would probably have the tickets when she met us the following day,” she said. “However, when we met on 17 July, she arrived without the tickets again, despite having indicated that she expected to have them by then.”
The group met CF again shortly after midnight on 23 July at a McDonald’s in Hougang. This time, she reportedly arrived without additional merchandise she had previously promised.
During the meet-up, the group also watched her log into Singpass, which the buyer said gave them further confirmation that the identity she had provided was genuine.
By then, however, one member of the group had decided to ask for a refund.
CF allegedly agreed to return the money by 4pm that day, but the payment did not arrive at the promised time.
After they followed up, she refunded S$350 through an ATM deposit. According to the buyer, CF said she had chosen that method because she did not want to leave any “traces”.
Some buyers ultimately missed EXO concert
EXO performed in Singapore on 24 and 26 July, but the buyer said there were still no tickets by the time the concerts arrived.
Source: @weareone.exo on Instagram
She said CF did not provide any updates until the group chased her, after which CF allegedly told them that the tickets had been cancelled and would be refunded.
CF also reportedly claimed that she would try to secure suite tickets for the group through an “SM Investor Client” because she felt bad about the cancellation. However, those tickets did not materialise.
Around the same period, CF allegedly told the group that she was being fired after her CFO discovered the situation.
The buyer told MS News that some of her friends ultimately missed the concert because they had continued waiting for CF instead of sourcing alternative tickets.
The uncertainty was particularly stressful, she said, as resale tickets were scarce and they did not know whether to continue waiting or look elsewhere.
Beyond potentially missing the concert, the buyer said the lengthy calls, repeated requests for more money, and uncertainty over whether they would receive the tickets or their money back had also taken an emotional toll.
Full S$4,000 refunded by 3 Aug
After the concerts, the group turned its attention to getting the money back.
According to the buyer, CF said she needed to wait for her salary before she could make the refunds.
Image courtesy of buyer
The money was eventually returned in several instalments:
- 23 July: S$350
- 27 July: S$1,000
- 28 July: S$700
- 29 July: S$700
- 3 Aug: S$1,250
By 3 Aug, the full S$4,000 had been refunded.
This meant that CF had held at least part of the group’s money for almost a month, from the first S$1,500 transfer on 5 July until the final refund on 3 Aug.
At least 14 people may have had similar experiences
After the buyer shared her experience on Reddit, she told MS News that three people independently contacted her with accounts involving the same seller.
Based on what they shared, she believes at least 14 people may have been affected, with the total amount involved approaching S$10,000.
She said they described similar experiences involving ticket transactions, repeated delays, cancelled tickets, and having to repeatedly chase for refunds.
However, the buyer stressed that she could not independently verify everything the other individuals had told her and could only speak with certainty about her own experience.
She nevertheless found it significant that multiple people who had no prior connection to her had independently come forward after seeing the Reddit post and described similar dealings with the same person.
The buyer also said CF had previously told her group that she had been terminated from her job.
Source: r/SgTea on Reddit
After the Reddit post went up, however, she was contacted by individuals who claimed to have transacted with CF more recently, which raised questions for her about the timeline.
“[CF] eventually refunded the amount after we chased her for more than a week after the concert, hence why I can’t fully call it a scam,” the buyer wrote in her Reddit post.
“However, the amount of time and mental energy this took up was crazy, and some of my friends did not end up going to the concert as well.”
Buyer wonders if transactions could have functioned as short-term loans
The buyer said she and her friends had also wondered whether the arrangement could have effectively functioned as a source of short-term, interest-free funds for CF, though she stressed that this was only a suspicion.
She said the repeated refund delays, followed by the money being returned in several instalments, were among the reasons the possibility crossed their minds.
“Based on accounts the other victims shared with me, some of their transactions appeared to overlap with the period when we were waiting for our refunds,” she said.
This made the group wonder whether money from newer transactions could have been used to meet earlier obligations.
For her, the main takeaway was that confirming a seller’s identity is not the same as confirming that they actually possess what they are offering for sale.
Even if you are able to verify that a seller is a real person and their identity is genuine, that does not necessarily mean that they actually have the goods that you are buying.
She added that even meeting a seller in person does not necessarily prove that they have the tickets they claim to possess.
The buyer said she and her friends intend to report the matter to Carousell and the police, and hoped their experience would encourage other concertgoers to exercise caution when buying resale tickets, particularly when an offer appears too good to be true.
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Featured image adapted from r/SgTea on Reddit and @weareone.exo on Instagram.
