Stolen Taylor Swift tickets scam victimizes woman, threatens dream vacation

FOX 2 - Karen Perry spent more than $4,000 tickets to Taylor Swift for a dream weekend trip with her niece.

To she is frustrated, would be an understatement.

"I’m losing sleep over this. It’s horrible," she said. "They took thousands of dollars of my money."

The woman originally from Royal Oak, now living in Washington State, and her Royal Oak niece, planned to be traveling to the New Orleans concert this weekend.

Perry was stunned after StubHub after learning she unexpectedly bought stolen tickets on the third party vendor StubHub's site.

"I’ve just heard nightmare stories about this happening to so many people, where it doesn’t happen in time for the concert - or they get their refund after the concert," she said. "I can’t afford to get a refund after the concert. I need to buy new tickets now."

FOX 2: "What emotions are you going through right now?"

"Sad, like I cry," she said. "I can’t sleep. I know it sounds crazy because it’s Taylor Swift, but we’ve been planning this for months and months."

On October 8th, Perry said Ticketmaster sent her a message that her concert tickets were canceled after violating their "Terms of Use policy."

She’s called StubHub every day since, but hasn’t gotten any resolution.

"Then, on October 17, Ticketmaster emailed me again, with another email saying, 'The tickets that were transferred to you were acquired by someone who attempted to steal tickets,'" Perry said.

FOX 2: "You’re flying from the West Coast to New Orleans. You’ve had to pay for the flight. You’ve had to pay for hotel reservations."

"We've done it all," Perry said. "We got costumes, we've got outfits. We’ve spent so much money on this dream trip."

Fortunately for Perry that dream is coming true. After FOX 2 spoke to her, we contacted StubHub and now Perry says they have reached a resolution for some comparable tickets - even better tickets than she actually paid for.

The Better Business Bureau has advice on how to avoid ticket scams:

Pay with a credit card to dispute charges

Use secure sites which start with https

Avoid Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other free listings

You can also get a check on third party vendor sites like StubHub at the Better Business Bureau website.