An apparent scam allegedly targeting nearly four hundred people, many of whom live in Burlington, Ontario, claiming they lost nearly $300,000 in total after believing they purchased Taylor Swift tickets in Toronto, only to never receive them.

Annette Newton had her doubts when she heard a friend say she knew a vendor who had corporate tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

“I contacted this person directly and he offered me some tickets,” Newton said in an interview with CTV News on Saturday. “I asked him a little bit about him and if he could provide me with proof of some tickets he had sold in the past, and he did.”

Newton said many other people have vouched for the trustworthiness of a friend who goes by the name Denise Blackhawk on Facebook.

One of the reasons she felt like she could trust him was because multiple people in the Burlington community told him they had bought tickets from him in the past, even showing them pictures of them attending other events.

“I followed up and asked a lot of questions,” Newton added. “I talked to him on the phone, I emailed him, I looked at his Facebook, people were saying, ‘thank you for the tickets.’ I contacted a few people and they said, ‘Yes, I bought some tickets from him.'”

Newton said the woman, who used the name “Denise,” said she had access to a third-party vendor that provided access to corporate portions of major events in Toronto, including concerts and sporting events.

Newton bought four tickets for about $2,500 to gift to his daughters for Christmas last year, and said Denise told him through several calls and text messages that she would have access to the tickets in the days leading up to Swift’s second Toronto show. On October 15th.

“This is also the way Ticketmaster releases the tickets,” said Newton’s daughter Emily, who will attend the concert with her mother. “They weren’t shipping until a few days ago, so you can’t just download them and start selling them to people, so everyone was getting them in the same flow.”

But when that day came, he says Denise told him the third party never sent the tickets.

“I heard him say pretty quickly, ‘I have a problem, I don’t have my tickets… they left, my corporate guy didn’t show up, I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do’.” ” claims Newton.

“I didn’t think about the money, I had to tell my four daughters, who were getting ready and excited to go to this event, that I had been scammed,” Newton said through tears. “I was embarrassed, I was beside myself.”

“I’m saddened by the impact it had on (my mother),” Emily said. “To take that away from people, that’s not who we are as people, and it’s sad to know that there are people who have the urge to do that to others.”

Hundreds of victims allegedly lost $300,000

After the incident, Newton said she reached out to many of the other mothers who had never received their tickets.

Jenny Beck, a mother from Oakville, Ontario, said she bought tickets for her 16-year-old daughter Madalina: “My heart really broke, not for the money but for the kids.”

“I can’t believe someone would do this,” he told CTV News via Zoom on Saturday.

After learning that the number of alleged victims in this incident continued to grow, several of them decided to create a joint online document to collect a list of names and the amount each alleged victim spent on tickets.

“There’s a Google doc floating around that we all fill out and we all have access to,” Beck said. “Over $300,000 as of late Friday night.”

“We have over 200 people who purchased tickets and we estimate they promised everyone a total of 450 tickets,” Alaina Attard said in a Sunday Zoom interview with CTV News. Attard also confirmed that the collective figure spent so far is over $300,000.

“The scope of this is absolutely huge,” said Attard, who claimed he paid Denise for Taylor Swift tickets he never received. “This is true in multiple states, there are people in the United States, too; it’s not just Burlington. It starts to feel like it is, but then you hear, ‘I’m from Kitchener, I’m from Toronto, I’m from Alberta.'” ” said Attard.

Attard and other mothers who spoke to CTV News said ‘Denise’ was a well-known mother in their neighborhood, with many people they had met in person and said she was trustworthy. They say ‘Denise’ told them the supplier of the corporate tickets took their money and disappeared, and ‘Denise’ also claimed to be one of the victims of the scam.

The answer of the alleged fraudster; police investigation

CTV News called the phone number that several alleged victims claimed belonged to “Denise”; The person who took his money in exchange for the promise of Taylor Swift tickets in return.

“I reported it to the police two days ago at 9 a.m., so we’ll wait for them to contact me,” someone who identified herself as ‘Denise’ told CTV News over the phone on Saturday.

The woman hung up the phone before CTV News could ask her any further questions and did not return any calls thereafter.

Halton Regional Police say they are investigating numerous reports of people paying for Taylor Swift concert tickets and never receiving them.

“We have contacted our Financial Crimes Unit and can confirm that we have received numerous reports and complaints regarding Taylor Swift tickets,” HRP spokesman Jeff Dillon said.

“I don’t have any more information to give you at this time as complaints are just starting to come in (on Friday), but we would like to remind residents to be careful when purchasing tickets.”

Police are asking the public to only purchase tickets from legitimate resale sites.