[Celine Dion singing along with fans and dancing outside her hotel]
[Woman walking past Celine Dion concert poster at Plenitude Arena]
[Arena]
[Barbara Poulain, Plenitude Arena’s head of communications, walking past Dion concert poster]
Barbara Poulain (interview): “Well, there is a lot of excitement behind her show. You can see people staying in front of her hotel waiting just to see her and of course fans are more vulnerable because they want tickets if they don’t have it. So they’re going to find any possible way to get one. And that’s when the scammers are going be full force to buy them, well, to sell them fake tickets.”
[Poulain looking at suspected fake Celine Dion website on her computer screen]
Barbara Poulain (interview): “Well, at the Plenitude Arena we saw two different types of scams. The first one is online. We saw mirror websites, so it’s basically a website that looks like the venue’s website or the artist’s website. Then you have scams through social media, so you’ve got three sorts: The first one is people creating fake accounts to sell tickets. Then you have so-called ‘conciergerie’, who are going to pretend to be able to help you get tickets. And then you’re going to have a fake fan introducing themselves into fan groups and try to sell tickets to real fans.”
[Poulain’s computer screen displaying a social media account she is suggesting may involve a ticket scam]
Anthony Gerlack (interview): “They know that if many people are interested in going to the concert and are also struggling to find tickets because it’s already sold out, that’s the best occasion for them to start selling fake tickets, working on the hope and despair of the people who cannot at the moment attend the event.”
[Screenshot of a website that Group-IB identified as a fake ticketing website for Celine Dion shows, imitating one of the authorized venues]
Anthony Gerlack (interview): “We noticed more than 20 (website) domains that were active and impersonating the official vendors of the concert. So it’s really mostly a purchase page where you have the logo of the official partner of the event who is the legitimate way to sell tickets and you can see the logo and afterwards you just have to put your private information and banking information. So they are similar because you really feel like you are on a legitimate website of the official partner of the event.”
[Poulain examining suspected scam ticketing website and then clicking to Dion’s official site]
Barbara Poulain (interview): “If everything is sold out, you still have the official resale that is also available on the artist’s website, venue’s website and all the distributors’ websites as well. And something that is really important: Tickets for this show, there is no PDF (paper tickets) or e-tickets. It’s only through a mobile app with a secure QR code. And the QR codes will be available 7 days before each show, meaning if you’re coming on September 12th and you already had a ticket before the 5th of September, then you probably got scammed.”
[Dion waving and communing with fans outside her hotel in Paris]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.