In the modern era, scammers use any means necessary to steal personal data and financial information from users across the web, including one of the most popular music stars in the world: Taylor Swift.
Between her massive tours and her extensive discography, the pop icon has made a huge impact on the world over the last few years. She stimulates economies and she breaks attendance records, all while managing her relationship with a certain NFL star.
Unfortunately, that popularity comes with some serious caveats, with more and more scams using Taylor Swift to take advantage of unsuspecting users online.
Common Taylor Swift Scams in 2024
If you’re excited to see Taylor Swift, whether in-person or online, the last thing you want is to become the victim of a scam. That is, unfortunately, exactly where scammers are taking aim at fans when it comes to convincing them to hand over personal information and financial data.
Here are some of the common scams involving Taylor Swift that you should watch out for in 2024.
This just in! View
the top business tech deals for 2024 👨💻
Taylor Swift concert ticket scam
As you can imagine, the massive popularity of Taylor Swift leads to some very high-priced tickets for her concerts. As a result, scammers have flocked to these events to take advantage of Taylor Swift fans, with desperate fans looking for any way to attend the shows.
One such scam sees legitimate accounts posting about available tickets in community groups on Facebook. They interact with users to get payment, and even provide a ticket for the event. Unfortunately, when you arrive at the Taylor Swift concert, the ticket doesn’t work, and you’re stuck on the outside, looking in.
Even worse, these scams are notoriously difficult to spot, because the tickets look so real, and the accounts being used are genuine Facebook accounts from real people that have been hacked.
With hacker groups breaching TicketMaster to get a hold of real tickets from Taylor Swift and other artists, so increasingly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Suffice to say, buying a Taylor Swift ticket online should always come with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Taylor Swift deepfake social media scam
Using Taylor Swift’s in-person appearances to scam unsuspecting fans is one thing, but her fame goes far beyond that. Her endorsements, for example, hold a lot of weight, given her scores of fans, and scammers have used that influence to perpetrate a wide range of online schemes to get access to personal information and financial data.
One example of Taylor Swift being used in service of online scams is a somewhat recent video that circulated on social media. It showed the pop star talking about a special deal that would allow viewers to get free Le Creuset cookware, as long as they pay a small shipping fee. Unfortunately, the Taylor Swift in question is a deepfake video designed to trick users into paying for nothing and providing personal and financial data to scammers in the process.
The scam is particularly clever because Taylor Swift is an outspoken user of Le Creuset cookware, which means that fans would be easily duped into believing the deepfake to be genuine. Unfortunately, that is very much not the case.
Why Are Taylor Swift Scams So Effective?
It’s understandable to ask why Taylor Swift scams are so common across the internet. After all, there is no shortage of celebrities that could be used for scams, so what makes Taylor Swift so special? Well, the primary reason is her overwhelming popularity.
Taylor Swift concert tickets, for example, are a highly sought-after commodity in 2024. The events in question sell out almost instantaneously, with scalpers reselling tickets for thousands of dollars — if not tens of thousands of dollars — to those that weren’t lucky enough to get access to the lottery.
As a result, scammers have taken note that fans are nothing if not desperate to see the pop star. Considering most scams are borne of desperation, like the COVID scams at the peak of the pandemic, this leaves many fans at risk of being scammed.
Other Celebrity Scams to Watch Out For
Given the improvements in AI technology and the proliferation of deepfake software, celebrity scams have become all too common in 2024. In fact, if you peruse the web long enough, you’ll almost certainly come across a celebrity endorsing a fake product or a fraudulent service in hopes of tricking a potential victim into handing over their data.
Subsequently, you should always be on the lookout for these kinds of scams, if only so you can protect yourself online and prevent any unwanted security and privacy issues in the future. Here are some celebrities that are used in these scams, so you can be extra careful:
- Dolly Parton
- Elon Musk
- Mr. Beast
- Tom Hanks
- Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
- Selena Gomez
- Blake Sheldon
- Jeff Bezos
- Piers Morgan
- Oprah
Simply put, if you see any of these celebrities endorsing a product, or really any famous person offering a too-good-to-be-true deal online, make sure to do your due diligence before handing over your personal data.
How to Avoid Scams in 2024
Scams have gotten problematically sophisticated in 2024. The evolution of AI technology has made many of them harder to spot than ever before, with everything from deepfake tech to phishing efforts getting a serious shot in the arm.
Subsequently, making an effort to avoid scams should be a priority for your online safety. Here are a few tips that can help you fend off scammers online in 2024:
- Verify before you buy – A quick Google search before you input financial data into a website can help you learn about scams before you fall victim.
- Check the URL – You can’t fake a web address, so be sure to check the URL on a particular website that you might think is fraudulent.
- Be informed – Staying up to date on current cybersecurity trends and possible scams, like you’re doing now, can make a big difference for your online safety.
Perhaps the best tip for avoid scams, though, is to stay vigilant. Most scams are pretty easy to spot if you’re paying attention, and that vigilance could save you a lot of money and a serious headache in the long run.
