'The moment I knew we'd lost £620 trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets'

A woman who was scammed out of £620 trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets has revealed the moment she knew she had been duped.

Aimee Brough had been attempting to bag tickets for the popstar’s June 23 show along with her sisters Maisy and Fleur and partner Jonathan.

The group were having no luck until Maisy found a post advertising tickets for the London concert on Facebook. The listing had been posted by a friend of her colleague.

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With the reassurance the seller wasn’t a stranger, the sisters reached out to her and asked to buy four tickets priced at £155 each. Before sending the cash, they asked to see proof the tickets were real which the seller provided.

The seller than asked the women to pay via an online banking payment link with Monzo.

Trusting the sale was legitimate, Aimee, a partnerships manager who lives in Manchester city centre, went ahead and sent the £620 in three separate links due to the bank’s payment limit.

The sisters excitedly waited for their tickets to be sent in return – but they were met with silence.

Aimee, 28, watched as the cash left her Monzo account and repeatedly refreshed her emails in the hopes the tickets would land in her inbox. After waiting some time, they reached out to the seller who told them she was busy at work and the tickets would arrive soon.

But after around 30 minutes, the sisters knew something was seriously wrong.

Following a failed attempt to call the seller, the sisters kept asking for updates until she finally replied asking for a further £200 to change the name on the tickets.

Aimee says this is the moment she knew they had been scammed. “We thought, no, it costs £3 to change the name,” she told the Manchester Evening News.

“I started Googling Taylor Swift scams and I thought, ‘Oh God, are we going to become one of these victims?’

“We asked for the tickets first but she refused to do it without money for the name transfers.

“We gave up after an hour. We felt really deflated, really upset and I just felt so stupid because I see myself as quite savvy and on with these things. I go to concerts all the time and I’ve bought resale tickets before.

“I thought because of the connection with the colleague we could trust them. We trusted that link way too much.”

Aimee now believes the seller’s Facebook account was legitimate but had been hacked by scammers selling fake tickets.

“We were too excited,” she added. “We had already started messaging family in London asking if we could stay with them and we were looking up train tickets.

“I opened a claims dispute on Monzo and was reading that it’s unlikely we will get our money back. There’s some hope we could but I’m not optimistic.”

Aimee says the incident has left her feeling “stupid” and wants to share her story so no one else falls for the same trap.

“I feel really stupid,” she said. “I should have asked more questions throughout. I thought I was quite savvy but their tricks are so clever.

“We’re out of pocket now and it’s a lot of money for us. We’re really upset about that but gutted we can’t go and see Taylor in London.”

A spokesperson from Monzo said: "We urge customers to be vigilant when buying things on social media - with over 70% of these kinds of scams originating online - and to take steps to protect themselves by using trusted sites and ending the conversation if something doesn’t feel right."