Young Taylor Swift fan devastated after Eras Tour tickets 'vanish' from Ticketmaster

A young Taylor Swift superfan has been left devastated after her mum's Ticketmaster account mysteriously showed their eagerly awaited tickets for the Edinburgh show as 'sold'. Ashley Farren from North Lanarkshire, Scotland, had planned this once-in-a-lifetime experience for her daughter Freyah, a hard-core fan of the global pop star. Ashley had even prepared a special Taylor Swift-inspired outfit for the 10 year old.

Trouble began when Ashley accessed her Ticketmaster account on Tuesday, June 4, and noticed that the app displayed her tickets as 'sold' -a transaction she didn't carry out.

Concern turned into panic since there were reports of a significant Ticketmaster data breach affecting approximately 560 million users last week. Ashley now nervously hopes that despite the alarming issue, they would still be able to use their tickets for the biggest gig of the year this weekend.

READ MORE: What bag you can and can't take to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour shows in London Wembley

Speaking with Glasgow Live, Ashley said: "Since the data breach I've been checking Ticketmaster everyday to check the tickets were still there. Everything was fine until I tried to check yesterday. When I went to log in there was a problem. It wouldn't let me in and then it kind of glitched and logged in. My heart sank when it did," reports Glasgow Live.

Describing the unnerving sight of the sold tickets, she added, "The tickets were just coming up saying they had been sold and it didn't give me any information on where they had gone or what had happened. There was nothing in my email to say that they had been sold or anything."

She continued: "I've tried to raise the issue with Ticketmaster but all I've had back is automated replies and its been over 24 hours. The concert is on Saturday so it has been a very stressful and upsetting time. It could be past the concert before we hear back."

Ashley fears that in addition to Freyah missing the show, she could lose more than £600 spent on travel, tickets and a hotel room for the dream trip. The mum forked out around £140 for tickets from Ticketmaster including fees. However, tickets for the sold out event at Murrayfield have since skyrocketed on re-sale websites to nearly £3,000 after initially being listed for £59.

She continued: "My daughter is the biggest Taylor Swift fan. She has been in tears since I told her. Her wee face is breaking my heart. This has been something that she has been looking forward to for a long time so it's difficult."

"It was meant to be such a special day out for her. I've organised the concert, travel, hotel in Edinburgh and a lot of little things for her on the day. But now it looks like everything was for nothing. I've spent more than it would cost for a holiday on this. For everything it's well over £600."

She continued: "At this point I'm not even hopeful that we will get them back or see any of the money again. It's not even like we could buy more because they are so extortionate now. We're gutted. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Several Taylor Swift devotees have taken to social media, voicing similar experiences with ticket issues. It is still not clear whether Ashley's tickets will be valid at the Murrayfield gig. GlasgowLive have reached out to Ticketmaster for comment.

Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster, confirmed it fell prey to hackers who allegedly threatened to flog customer data on the dark web. The suspect group, known as ShinyHunters, are reportedly demanding a cool £400,000 to refrain from selling this valuable information.

The cyber crooks supposedly infiltrated the system, gaining access to personal details - names, addresses, phone numbers - and a limited amount of payment info of an astonishing 560 million users.

In an official statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, Live Nation disclosed: "On May 20, 2024, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company data (primarily from its Ticketmaster L.L.C. subsidiary) and launched an investigation with industry-leading forensic investigators to understand what happened."

"On May 27, 2024, a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web. We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the Company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement. As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorized access to personal information."

"As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had, and we do not believe it is reasonably likely to have, a material impact on our overall business operations or on our financial condition or results of operations. We continue to evaluate the risks and our remediation efforts are ongoing."

It's understood that authorities in the US, UK and Australia are investigating the breach.

Stay up to date with London's most exciting events, newest restaurants and latest deals with our What's On newsletter, Going Out Out. You can sign up HERE.