Ticketmaster changes Taylor Swift ticket transfer rules amid reported ticket thefts
Some fans have reported that tickets were transferred incorrectly away from their accounts
Ticketmaster is enforcing new rules around how fans transfer Taylor Swift tickets amid a surge in reported scams.
The ticket sales giant recently updated its website to say ticket transfers for Swift's concerts can only start 72 hours before the event. Previously, Swifties could transfer tickets between Ticketmaster accounts at any time.
Representatives for Ticketmaster confirmed the rule but did not respond to questions about the reason for the change.
It comes after a spike in reported hacks to Ticketmaster accounts that have affected Swift's Canadian fans, as well as ticket holders for other events operated by the company.
Some customers posted on social media that concert tickets they purchased months ago were suddenly transferred from their Ticketmaster accounts without their authorization.
Stolen tickets to be restored, company says
The company said in a statement it is working to "restore fans' tickets."
"The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate," it wrote.
"Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans."
Francine Vachon, associate professor of information systems at Brock University, is skeptical that Ticketmaster's changes to ticket transfers will have a real impact on alleged ticket theft, pointing out the change doesn't stop theft from occurring within the 72-hour window before the event.
She told CBC News that these reported thefts can be traced back to a data breach this summer.
In July, Ticketmaster alerted Canadian customers that a data breach had occurred, allowing a third party to access customers' personal information. This may have included their name, contact information, and even credit and debit card information, the company said at the time. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada subsequently launched an investigation into Ticketmaster to assess its security safeguards.
"That's how people are able to log in to people's accounts and steal their tickets," Vachon said. "If my daughter had an account and she was a Swiftie, they could just use her password, go into her account, take her ticket and transfer it to their own account."
Greater log-in security urged
Although changing your password after a data breach to something secure and unique is always good advice, she said the company should be doing more to actively protect consumers. She said Ticketmaster could have enforced two-factor authentication for logging in, before or after the breach, but hasn't so far.
"They did not encrypt their data, and now people are getting their tickets stolen," she said.
The effectiveness of limiting ticket transfers until right before shows will be tested soon— Swift's record-breaking Eras tour is coming to Toronto next month, with the first of six shows kicking off on Nov. 14. The Toronto shows are to be followed by three shows in Vancouver in December.
Tickets to see Swift have been a hot commodity — some Canadian fans flew to Europe to see her instead of competing for seats at the Canadian dates.
Ticketmaster's handling of ticket sales has been under the microscope recently. After Oasis saw tickets fly off the digital shelves at soaring prices in early September, the company came under fire for its use of dynamic pricing, which ties the price of tickets to the demand, driving the price up.
The U.K.'s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster's handling of the Oasis ticket sales to see if the company breached consumer protection laws.
With files from CBC News