A pair of Singaporean Taylor Swift fans realised that the tickets they purchased from a third-party seller to the star’s concert on 2 Mar were a scam about a week before the show.
As tickets have already sold out on official platforms, the disappointed fans had no choice but to sit outside the National Stadium on the day of the concert as they still wanted to hear the songs live.
On a whim, they decided to check ticket resale platform Viagogo when they reached the venue and — as luck would have it — managed to get genuine tickets 20 minutes into the show.
Although they missed Swift’s first few songs, they eventually made it in and caught the rest of the concert.
The fans, 21-year-old Arinna Nur Aqillah Binte Faizal and 20 year-old Insafi Izzazi, both students, spoke to MS News to raise awareness about their experience to fans who intend to purchase resale tickets to the remaining shows in Singapore.
They had purchased the first set of tickets for Cat 5 seats at S$200 each from a third-party reseller.
About a week before Swift’s first ‘The Eras Tour’ show in Singapore on 2 Mar, the friends realised that the tickets were fake.
The fake ticket (left) and the genuine one (right). Image courtesy of Arinna Nur Aqillah Binte Faizal.
Red-flags that indicated to them that the tickets were fake include:
The pair said they were devastated upon learning that they had fallen prey to a scam, as this was supposed to be a post-internship retreat for Insafi.
Despite the unfortunate turn of events, they still decided to sit outside the National Stadium to hear Taylor Swift perform.
Arinna said: “I remember telling Insafi that it’s not fair we ended up outside when we were supposed to be inside.”
When they got there, they tried scanning their tickets, only to have their suspicions confirmed. “That was when I knew I should accept my fate,” the 21-year-old added.
Out of sheer curiosity, the pair decided to try their luck on ticket resale platform Viagogo when the show started. This was despite knowing that the show was sold out.
However, Lady Luck was smiling on them as they saw tickets on sale after refreshing the page. With bated breaths, the pair quickly snapped the tickets up.
Image courtesy of Arinna Nur Aqillah Binte Faizal
“I wouldn’t say it’s a good thing to encourage because we did not think it through. But, in that moment, we really wanted the tickets, so we decided to take a gamble and hope it’ll work out in our favour,” Arinna remarked.
This time, Arinna and Insafi paid S$299 for each ticket, inclusive of a S$42 booking fee.
Upon verifying at the doors that these tickets were genuine, they ran into the stadium towards their seats.
Words will never be enough to describe the feeling. Running with my best friend 20 minutes late as ‘The Archer’ by Taylor Swift was playing really defined what true friendship means.
Addressing fans who may have similar experiences, Arinna said: “No matter what situation you are in, I believe that life will always compensate for what is lost.”
On top of that, she also said this incident was a learning experience for her and Insafi, which taught them to avoid third-party ticket sales in the future.
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Featured image courtesy of Arinna Nur Aqillah Binte Faizal.
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