Hackers Stole Hundreds of Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tickets and Sold Them for $600,000, Prosecutors Say
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Two individuals have been arrested and arraigned in New York City for stealing more than 900 concert tickets, many of which were for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and making more than $600,000 in the process.
Prosecutors from the District Attorney’s Office in Queens County said that two individuals, Tyrone Rose and Shamara P. Simmons, were arrested last Thursday and charged with grand larceny, computer tampering, conspiracy and tampering. They allegedly made off with approximately 993 tickets to the Eras Tour and Ed Sheeran and Adele concerts in a scheme that gave them access to already purchased tickets.
According to the Office, Rose and another accomplice worked for Sunderland, a third-party contractor for StubHub in Kingston, Jamaica, using their access to StubHub’s system to intercept tickets. The Office claims that they stole URLs for already sold tickets and redirected the URLs to Simmons and a now-deceased accomplice. They then posted the tickets on StubHub and resold them for profit from June 2022 to July 2023.
In a statement, District Attorney Melinda Katz said, “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. 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.”
Mark Streams, chief legal officer at StubHub, shared in a statement to Variety, “At StubHub, ensuring a safe and secure platform for our fans is our highest priority. Upon discovering this criminal scheme, we immediately reported it to the third-party customer service vendor, Sutherland Global Services (SGS), as well as to the Queens District Attorney’s Office and Jamaican law enforcement. The individuals involved, employees of SGS, exploited a system vulnerability to fraudulently resell tickets. They were swiftly identified and terminated. StubHub has since replaced or refunded all identified orders impacted and strengthened security measures to further protect our fans and sellers. We appreciate the efforts of District Attorney Melinda Katz and law enforcement in bringing these individuals to justice.”
The Eras Tour, of course, was the biggest pop tour in history, wrapping its worldwide run in Dec. 2024 with over $2 billion earned in sales. The average initial-point-of-sale price for a ticket to the tour was $204, while the average price on the secondary market was $1,652 per ticket.
