Two individuals have been apprehended and brought to justice in New York City for orchestrating a heist involving over 900 concert tickets, predominantly for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, and pocketing a staggering $600,000 in the racket. Prosecutors from the Queens County District Attorney’s Office revealed that Tyrone Rose and Shamara P. Simmons were nabbed last Thursday and slapped with charges of grand larceny, computer tampering, conspiracy, and further tampering. They stand accused of swooping in and securing around 993 tickets to the Eras Tour, as well as concerts featuring Ed Sheeran and Adele, through a cleverly devised plot that granted them unauthorized access to already purchased tickets.
According to the Office, Rose and an accomplice were employed by Sunderland, a third-party contractor for StubHub operating in Kingston, Jamaica. Leveraging their access to StubHub’s system, they intercepted tickets with dexterity. The Office alleges they swiped the URLs of already sold tickets and clandestinely redirected them to Simmons and a now-deceased accomplice. From June 2022 to July 2023, they brazenly listed these tickets on StubHub and flipped them for a tidy profit.
In a scathing statement, District Attorney Melinda Katz fumed, “The allegations paint a picture of defendants who capitalized on the fevered demand for Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other marquee events, making a mint at the expense of unsuspecting concertgoers. They supposedly exploited a loophole through an offshore ticket vendor, stealing tickets to what is arguably the biggest concert tour of the decade, and then turned a盲目暴利 of over $600,000 by reselling these seats.”
Mark Streams, StubHub's chief legal officer, echoed these sentiments in a statement to Variety, saying, “At StubHub, safeguarding a secure and trustworthy platform for our fans is paramount. Upon uncovering this nefarious scheme, we promptly alerted Sutherland Global Services (SGS), our third-party customer service vendor, as well as the Queens District Attorney’s Office and Jamaican law enforcement. The perpetrators, who were employees of SGS, cunningly exploited a system vulnerability to fraudulently peddle tickets. They were swiftly pinpointed and terminated. StubHub has since replaced or reimbursed all affected orders and bolstered our security measures to further shield our fans and sellers. We commend District Attorney Melinda Katz and law enforcement for their diligent efforts in bringing these criminals to justice.”
The Eras Tour, undeniably the largest pop tour in history, concluded its global trek in December 2024 with an impressive $2 billion tally in sales. The average initial ticket price for the tour hovered at $204, while the secondary market saw tickets fetching an average of $1,652 each.
