How I was Coldplayed by a ticket scam on Facebook

Someone on your social media has tickets to a gig but can’t make it any more – seems legit. Except, in Kate Solomon’s case it wasn’t, and revealed an insidious new frontier of fraud

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You might think you’re pretty good at spotting a scam – I did. Flat-hunting in Facebook groups? It’s obvious which too-goodto-be-true apartments are not legit. Tickets to long-sold-out gigs magically available at face value on X? Sure, Jan. Text messages claiming to be Evri with an unexpected parcel? Seen that before. I thought I was sooo savvy, quietly going “Nope!” as I deleted them and thinking oof, ima ne being caught out like that.

And then I got a message from James.

James* is someone I know vaguely and see maybe once a year. He’s my dad’s partner’s son and lives near them in the Midlands. Occasionally, he’ll message me on Facebook Messenger to say “Merry Christmas!” and I’ll say “You too!” – then we won’t speak again for months and months. So it was unusual to get a Facebook message from him, but not outlandish.

James had managed to get some Coldplay tickets for next year but couldn’t make the show any more. Did I know anyone looking for some? It made sense for him to ask me – I live in London, I write about music, I’m often at gigs and, in a world of cynics, I have a soft spot for Coldplay. Plus, I love brokering tickets between friends. It makes me feel really good to help someone get into a show they really want to go to. “Ooh, I think I do know some people who tried and didn’t get any!” I wrote back, already thrilled at the idea of helping out. “Let me ask around.”

I put James in touch with my friend Mike*, whose mum hadn’t managed to get tickets. Over the next few hours, I was vaguely aware that Mike was sending £240 to a “business bank account” and that James’s friend who owned the account had an interesting name with suggestive connotations – “Charley White” – but mostly I ignored the chat and went about my day with the warm, smug glow of someone who’s done a good thing.