The group also supposedly targeted the concerts of Adele and Ed Sheeran.
Two hackers have been arrested after they allegedly stole hundreds of tickets for Taylor Swift‘s “The Eras Tour,” amongst other major events.
As per Deadline, Queens, New York residents Tyrone Rose and Shamara P. Simmons are accused of stealing and selling up to 900 digital concert tickets — most of which were for Swift’s historic run — and made a profit of over $600,000 USD in a year. Other big events included Adele concerts, Ed Sheeran concerts, NBA games and the US Open Tennis Championships.
“According to the charges, these defendants tried to use the popularity of Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other high-profile events to profit at the expensive of others,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “They allegedly exploited a loophole through an offshore ticket vendor to steal tickets to the biggest concert tour of the last decade and then resold those seats for an extraordinary profit of more than $600,000.”
DA Katz revealed that two unnamed individuals employed at a StubHub third-party contractor in Kingston, Jamaica would allegedly steal the ticket URLs and email them to two co-conspirators in Jamaica, Queens. They would then download the tickets and resell them on StubHub for personal gain.
Rose and Simmons are being charged with second degree grand larceny, first degree computer tampering, fourth degree conspiracy and fourth degree computer tampering, and are facing a maximum of three to 15 years in prison. Deadline adds that the DA’s office is continuing its investigation to find the other co-conspirators and ascertain the full extent of the operation.
