1 week Ago By Joel Ehsman
When a Dapto woman saw tickets for Luke Comb's tour for sale on Facebook she thought she had hit the jackpot. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading Instead, she was left $800 out of pocket.
Maddy Smith couldn't believe her luck when she saw the tickets for sale considering both of Luke Combs' 2025 shows in Sydney are sold out. "He [Luke Combs] is amazing. My partner and I love him and I thought it would be an amazing surprise for my partner for Christmas as he was so disappointed to miss out on the tickets," she said.
"I would never usually do anything like this, I know how common scamming occurs but the profile was a girl who had mutual friends with me, she studied at UOW and seemed completely legitimate. "I've found out since that the poor girl got hacked." The hacked account sent fake screenshots to Ms Smith and requested a $400 administration charge for each ticket.
"The scammer had proof of tickets, sent me screenshots of the Ticketmaster website, explaining the administration charge," she said. "I was certain that the profile was legit because she was a mutual friend with a number of people I know. "I didn't even think about the idea that she may have been hacked.
" Ms Smith says she realised she was being scammed after seeing grammatical errors in the screenshots and was left feeling "totally stupid and gullible". In 2024, Australians have reported that $186,310,466 has been lost due to scams , with nearly 10,000 Australians between the age of 25-34 falling victim to a scam. The ScamWatch website advises anyone who thinks they have been scammed to contact their bank or credit card provider and to report the scam on its website .
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, covering the local community. Got a tip? Send it through to me at joel.ehsman@austcommunitymedia.
com.au. He/Him Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, covering the local community.
Got a tip? Send it through to me at [email protected].
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