Meet the “Sister Swifties,” Lisa, Britney and Carla. As big-time, lifelong fans of the music sensation Taylor Swift, they donned that nickname years ago, long before the artist’s Eras Tour was even a glimmer in their eyes. Naturally, from the moment the tour was announced, they tried desperately to get tickets. When they sold out with unprecedented demand at lightning speed, the Sister Swifties were sadly left empty-handed.

Adding insult to injury, Carla’s 16-year-old daughter, Reese, is more obsessed with Taylor Swift than the Sister Swifties combined! She was heartbroken when tickets sold out. As the tour got into full swing and social media exploded with Eras Tour content, Reese grew increasingly devastated at the thought of missing out… until the Sister Swifties hatched a plan.

Lisa: You guys, check out this post!!! Someone from the local garage sale site on Facebook is selling Eras Tour tickets for $400 each!!! Should I buy four tickets?! Three for us Sister Swifties and one as a surprise for Reese!?!

Carla: If this is legit, I’m soooo in!! That’s amazing if they are real. Reese will be so happy if we get these!

Lisa: How would I know if they’re real? The lady looks legit… she’s been on Facebook since 2009.

Britney: I’m 1000000% in! Can you find her on social media outside of the garage sale group? Does she have real friends? LOL!

Lisa: Britney, can you research her? I’m out to dinner with my family and they’re getting irritated I’m on the phone.

Britney: I don’t have a lot of time either. I’m packing to leave for vacation in the morning. But I feel like we need to act on this fast because they’ll sell quick! I’ll look at it now!

Britney: OMG I’m getting excited. I just messaged her and she sent back a Ticketmaster screenshot. I don’t know how to tell if it’s real since she blacked out some of the details, but that’s probably for her own protection! And the seats are AMAZING! Definitely worth double or quadruple what she’s charging. I just asked her how to pay. I’m nervous… LOL.

Carla: Is she asking for Venmo? Seems like you should be able to pay through Ticketmaster.

Britney: She said she can take Venmo. She just sent me a screenshot of the ticket too. Should I offer to pay for 1 ticket then ask her to send it to make sure it actually shows up in my Ticketmaster account? Then we can buy the other 3? Losing $400 is better than $1600!

Lisa: Yes! I’ll take that risk!

Britney: She said she doesn’t think she can split tickets. Shoot. I’ll just offer to pay for one and then tell her I’ll pay the rest after she sends all 4 tickets. She’s concerned that we are going to scam her too but hopefully she’ll agree to that.

Carla: Do it!

Britney: She said ok! I’ll try to send now. Fingers crossed this is for real… I’m getting so excited!

30 minutes later...

Lisa: What’s the update? I’m dying to find out. Do you have the tickets in your account?

Britney: She just sent me a payment request on Venmo from her cousin’s account. It won’t send to her email for some reason. But don’t worry… I’ve been researching her on social media and I know where she lives. LOL! We will get these tickets or I’ll go knock on her door! Okay, I just sent her the money!

10 minutes later...

Britney: She was confirming payment like 10 minutes ago and now I haven’t heard back from her.

Carla: Hurry up, lady!

10 minutes later...

Britney: Ok, now she said she misunderstood me. She wants payment for 2 tickets first and then she’ll send all 4. Should I go for it at this point? Send her another $400? I don’t get the vibe she is a scammer.  She seems really worried that we’re scamming her.

Lisa: Yeah, do it! I’m already picking out my outfit!

Britney: Ok. Done. She’s waiting on her cousin to tell her she received our payment. But these Venmo payments are immediate so either they are really slow at texting each other or we fell for a scam.

5 minutes later...

Britney: Oh no. We are definitely scammed! She blocked me on Facebook so I can no longer message her!

Carla: What? I’m furious! Did we just lose $800?!?!

Lisa: What do we do now?

Carla: Dispute the payments immediately with Venmo and with your credit union.

Lisa: I’m beginning to think this woman’s Facebook account was hacked. I bet the person you were messaging with isn’t the real Facebook account owner. Hence why she asked you to send it to her “cousin’s” account instead of hers. Guarantee you she doesn’t have a cousin… we just sent the money directly to the person who hacked that lady’s Facebook account. I feel so stupid.

Carla: So unfair. I wonder how many other people this person scammed from the same post.

The next morning...

Lisa: Did you hear anything back from Venmo or your credit union?

Britney: Not yet. But I don’t have much hope. I did a bunch of research and I don’t think we have a valid dispute because we did actually authorize the payments. So now we’ll just have to bear the loss.

Carla: That stinks. I’ll Venmo you now for my portion of the loss so you’re not out all of the money.

Lisa: Same, and we will pretend this never happened. I suppose it was too good to be true. Lesson learned.

Unfortunately for the Sister Swifties, they were right – they never recouped their loss. While Reg E does provide consumer protection from liability in certain instances, those protections do not apply when a consumer does in fact authorize an electronic payment, which was the case in this scenario.

How could these sisters have spotted the scam? Did you notice moments where they made hasty decisions with little precaution? Did you identify any red flags that should have prompted them to pause? Help your members learn from their mistakes and educate them on what to look out for in this common person-to-person (P2P) fraud scheme!

P2P Fraud Red Flags

• As Britney detected, the ticket price was too good for the seats being offered.

• Portions of the ticket screenshots the scammer sent to Britney were blacked out.

• Carla mentioned that Ticketmaster probably offered a way to purchase/transfer tickets, but in their haste, Britney and Lisa disregarded her thought and moved right into talking about transferring payment through Venmo since that is what the scammer requested, ignoring the recommended protocol for ticket resale.

• To seem more legitimate, the scammer acted as though she was nervous Britney would scam her when negotiating.

• The scammer utilized a Venmo account with a different name to request payment.

• The email the scammer provided was not a real email account and was not recognized by Venmo.

• Once the initial $400 was sent, the scammer claimed she misunderstood their agreement and needed an additional $400 before sending the tickets. Re-reading the conversation, Britney later realized that their conversation and agreement was very clear and didn’t leave room for misinterpretation.

• Can you spot anything more? The sisters suspected a possible fraud scheme the entire time, yet still ignored all of the above red flags. Why? Because they let their excitement cloud their judgement and they skipped over the all-important research process due to distractions and urgency.

Skyrocketing P2P Scams

Unfortunately, these P2P scams happen all the time. According to Consumer Reports (2022), 18% of consumers use a P2P service once a week. Of these heavy users, half report having been victims of a scam. And the fraudsters are getting bolder. The average dollar amount of fraud attempted through P2P channel is 60% higher than the average card-not-present fraud attempt.

What steps can credit unions take to protect members?

Preventing P2P Fraud Pitfalls

Member education is critical in the ongoing fight against P2P fraud. The NCUA has provided some useful tips to keep money safe when using P2P apps:

1. Question
Ask yourself if using a P2P payment app makes sense for your transaction. Use P2P payment apps only with people you know and trust, if possible. You should never have to transfer money to receive money from an app. If you are asked to do that, it’s a scam.

2. Verify
Always double-check the recipient’s information to make sure you’re sending money to the right person, even if it is someone you know. A good practice is to have the intended recipient send you a request before you send the money.

3. Review
Familiarize yourself with the fraud protection policies of the P2P payment app that you are using and understand whether and how you can recover funds if a problem arises.

4. Reconsider
If your P2P app is linked to a checking account as a source of funds, consider linking instead to a credit card. A credit card provides added protection if you don’t receive the goods or services you purchased.

5. Protect
Protect your payment app and log in with the strongest authentication available, like Face ID or Touch ID, two-factor authentication, a strong password, or a PIN. Turn off automatic login settings and set up notifications for all payment transactions.

6. Contact
Never provide sensitive account information to someone on the phone or via links in an email. Legitimate customer service representatives will not ask for this information. If someone contacts you requesting this information, contact customer service directly to confirm. Scammers can spoof emails and phone numbers.

We're Here to Help

Alloya stands ready to assist credit unions in preventing fraud and making payment processing more secure. We welcome feedback from our credit union members on how we can better help you in this important effort.

For more information about P2P fraud scams, or to share your feedback with Alloya, please contact the author, Liza Gillan, at liza.gillan@alloyacorp.org or Alloya’s Compliance Department at compliance@alloyacorp.org.