Back in 2023, Taylor Swift kicked off her Eras Tour, which featured shows all over the world. Quickly becoming one of the biggest events of the year and 2024, the tour grossed over $2 billion thanks to fans clamoring to get their hands on a ticket. Over the last two years, countless stories surfaced about fans going to extraordinary lengths to see Swift in concert. Besides paying thousands of dollars, some fans camped outside the concert just to hear the music. With billions made, authorities arrested two hackers after they made nearly $600,000 by stealing and reselling Swift tickets.
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On February 27th, police in New York arrested two individuals for supposedly stealing over 900 concert tickets for shows by Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Swift. According to the district attorney’s office, the thieves worked for a third-party contractor for StubHub. At the time, they found a way to access purchased tickets to the events. Able to see the tickets, the two people stole the URLs and sold them on StubHub for profit.
Taking place between June 2022 and July 2023, district attorney Melinda Katz discussed how the thieves operated. “They allegedly exploited a loophole through an offshore ticket vendor to steal tickets to the biggest concert tour of the last decade and then resold those seats for an extraordinary profit of more than $600,000.”
StubHub Looking To Make It Right For Taylor Swift Fans
With the hackers shining a light on StubHub and the company’s safety measures, the chief legal officer, Mark Streams, promised buyers that the platform was dedicated to the safety and security of fans purchasing tickets.
Only targeting high-profile performers like Swift, Katz added, “According to the charges, these defendants tried to use the popularity of Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other high-profile events to profit at the expense of others.”
While taken into custody and facing multiple charges like computer tampering, conspiracy, and grand larceny, StubHub hoped to make it right to those impacted by the hackers. The company either replaced or refunded the tickets and promoted new security features that would make the buying process safe.
(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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