BY Nadia Ntiamoah
A 20-year-old Jamaican man, Tyrone Rose, has pleaded guilty to grand larceny in a New York court for stealing and reselling over 900 tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Tyrone Rose, who worked as a contractor for StubHub, used his position to access a restricted area of the ticketing platform’s network, where he obtained URLs for event tickets that had already been sold.
He then redirected these tickets to a co-conspirator in Queens, who resold them for a staggering $635,000 in profit.
The Scheme Unfolds
According to authorities, Tyrone Rose exploited a loophole through an offshore ticket vendor to steal tickets for the highly anticipated concert tour.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz condemned the actions, stating, “These defendants tried to use the popularity of Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other high-profile events to profit at the expense of others.”
The scheme was reportedly discovered, and StubHub promptly reported it to law enforcement and replaced or refunded all affected orders.
Consequences and Charges
Rose faces up to 15 years in prison for his role in the ticket scam.
His guilty plea is likely part of a deal that could see him receive a reduced sentence.
In addition to grand larceny, Tyrone Rose was charged with computer tampering, money laundering, and conspiracy.
The massive demand for Eras Tour tickets led to chaotic presales and sparked calls for ticketing reform. Swift’s fans filed class actions against Ticketmaster over the presale debacle, and the Federal Trade Commission is suing a ticket broker for allegedly using bots to buy tickets that were resold for over $1 million in profit.
Ticketmaster’s Security Concerns
Meanwhile, Ticketmaster has been dealing with its own security issues.
In July 2024, hackers leaked alleged ticket data for 166,000 Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, warning that more events would be leaked if a $2 million extortion demand wasn’t met.
Ticketmaster attributed the breach to a Snowflake cloud storage account hack and assured customers that their SafeTix technology prevents ticket theft by frequently refreshing barcodes.
