Hackers take over Utah man’s Facebook, scam buyers into fake Taylor Swift tickets

BOUNTIFUL, Utah — Scammers are taking advantage of the Taylor Swift frenzy, hacking Facebook accounts and attempting to sell fake concert tickets.

Bountiful resident Morgan Treft said after buying tickets through a third party for the pop star’s Seattle concert, she did not think twice about buying tickets from a person posting on a local Facebook group. She started messaging the person via Facebook Messenger.

“I found this, you know, what I suppose was a local person that was selling their tickets and I said, ‘Hey what do you want for your tickets?’ and he told me the price,” Treft said. “I said, “OK, I am willing to buy all four of your tickets that you have for sale.’”

Calling all #Swifties! If you see a Bountiful man selling 4 Taylor Swift concert tickets on Facebook…it’s a scam.
At 10:00, we talk to a victim who is out $2,000. Plus the man whose Facebook account was hacked has tips on preventing this from happening to you @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/tUDO7ZnIRi

— Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) August 2, 2023

Treft agreed to purchase four tickets at $500 apiece. She followed the man’s instructions and sent the payment over via Venmo to the man’s partner. The person then asked for $400 extra for a “Ticketmaster transfer fee” and that is when Treft knew something was wrong.

“My heart dropped and I thought I’d been scammed,” she said.

After about a day the person stopped responding to Treft, and the electronic tickets never showed up. Treft said her payment was covered by Venmo’s Purchase Protection but has yet to receive her money back.

She decided to take action, went back to the Bountiful man’s Facebook page and messaged his wife, who was tagged on his account.

“I reached out to her and asked, “Is your husband selling Taylor Swift tickets?” she said.

She quickly got a response saying that her husband’s Facebook has been hacked for months and that the person behind his account was a scammer running this same con on others.

“I am not selling Taylor Swift tickets,” said the real Kory Jasperson. “After I was hacked, I asked Facebook to send a password reset and it showed me like the last little bit of an email which was not my email account.”

Jasperson believes the hacker changed the account’s email twice, wiping out his original email address and leaving him without a way of getting back into his account. He said the scammer has posted about selling Taylor Swift tickets to multiple Facebook groups he was a part of. Jasperson has since set up a second account to monitor the hacker.

“I’ve seen lots of individuals respond to the posts and say, ‘Oh I’m interested in these tickets’ or ‘I’ve PM’d you,’” he said. “I am almost assured there are multiple people who have and will continue to be scammed if Facebook doesn’t do anything.”

Jasperson has reached out to Facebook multiple times to report the issue, but it has yet to be resolved. He has also had friends and family report his account and is actively contacting the local Utah groups where he has seen these fraudulent posts.

KSL reached out to Facebook about Jasperson’s case but has yet to receive a response.

Treft hopes sharing her experience will prevent this from happening to others.

“Really do your research, really do your homework. If you feel like something is off, do not send the money,” she said.

The KSL Investigators have reported on this problem before: Facebook offers no easy way to try and reclaim your account. But they found something you can do, click here for tips.