KUALA LUMPUR: A 50-year-old engineer from Kuching, Sarawak lost RM11,530 trying to buy tickets online for a Taylor Swift concert in Singapore next year.
Sarawak police chief Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri said in a statement yesterday that on July 6, the man attempted to purchase tickets through social media from a site which claimed it was selling them.
"He purchased three tickets worth RM11,530 via online payment.
"He paid into a bank account provided by the social media site.
"He realised he had been scammed when he could not contact the ticket seller after making the payment," said Azman, adding that the victim made a police report on the same day.
Swift's The Eras Tour has live performances at Singapore's National Stadium on six dates in March next year.
Tickets for all six nights were sold out within eight hours on July 7.
Azman also said that a company executive in Miri lost RM106,737 after she took up a part-time job through WhatsApp offered by a contact number she did not know.
The woman in her 30s was told to go to a social media site to click "like" and to "subscribe" and was promised RM20 commission for every click.
"She was asked to deposit certain sums of money online to earn even more profit for her deposit. Between July 3 and 7, she had made 10 payments to eight different accounts for RM106,737," said Azman.
The woman realised she had been cheated after the person she had been dealing with could not be contacted.