Elaborate scam cost Adelaide sisters $2.7k for Olivia Rodrigo Melbourne concert tickets

An Adelaide family who drove to Melbourne and waited 15 hours to get into an Olivia Rodrigo concert found out their tickets were sold to someone else without them knowing.

Sisters Emily, Chloe and Imogen McAloon paid $1375 for VIP general admission tickets to see Rodrigo’s GUTS tour on October 10.

They woke at 5am and lined up outside Rod Laver Arena 15 hours before the 7.30pm show so they could be in the front row.

While in line, one of the girls wanted to double-check their ticket details — only to discover the tickets were under different names.

“My parents rushed to Ticketek where they confirmed someone had hacked into our account and listed our tickets on a Ticketek marketplace for $1 each,” Emily said.

“We were extremely upset, confused, and worried about what the outcome would be.”

Having travelled all the way from Adelaide, they were relieved to find out they could buy another three VIP tickets for $1375 at the box office.

“We were 149 (to) 151 in line … we had travelled for nine hours in the car for this moment,” Emily said.

“When my parents were able to spend another (almost) $1,500 on the tickets, we felt extremely lucky and relieved that Ticketek even had tickets they were selling as the concert was sold out.”

Ticketek said it was aware of unauthorised access to individual customer accounts.

It said the account details were likely stolen as a “result of other third-party data breaches” and sold on the dark web.

The company urged customers to change the passwords for their account every six months.

It warned Australia had become a “global hot spot” for phishing scams across all e-commerce businesses.

Phishing scams are ways cyber criminals trick people into providing their personal details, such as by impersonating a brand and pretending to sell goods online.

“If customers believe that they’ve had stolen or misappropriated property, and the resale of their tickets was fraudulent, customers should immediately file a police report and contact Ticketek customer service so we can commence an investigation,” Ticketek said.

“If the original ticket-holder can demonstrate they originally purchased the tickets, their information has been legitimately compromised, and the (subsequent) sale was fraudulent, Ticketek will work with the customer to resolve the issue.”

The McAloon family are currently collecting all information to send to Ticketek hoping they will be refunded the price of their stolen tickets.

Parents Amanda and Ian McAloon describe their daughters as die-hard Rodrigo fans.

When the girls got their initial tickets they were “beyond excited, one of them cried,” Amanda said.

She said a few weeks before the concert, her husband had noticed the email linked to his Ticketek account had changed but “didn’t think anything of it as he still saw all the tickets”.

McAIoon is calling on Ticketek to take responsibility and refund them for the tickets stolen.

She said some comedy show tickets on the account were also sold off by the hackers.

Ticketek said it “continues to invest heavily on strengthening security measures for customers”.

“Ticketek also implements security alerts for key account changes to ensure customers are protected from bad actors,” a spokesperson said.