NEW YORK (TNND) — Two people were arrested for their involvement in a cybercrime ring that stole and then resold upwards of 900 digital tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and other popular events on StubHub, according to prosecutors in New York.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz on Monday identified the suspects as 20-year-old Tyrone Rose, of Kingston, Jamaica, and 31-year-old Shamara P. Simmons, 31, of Queens, N.Y.
Katz said Rose and Simmons were arrested on the following charges:
“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,” Katz said in a news release. “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. This takedown highlights the vigilance of my office’s Cybercrime and Cryptocurrency Unit as well as the importance of working with our industry partners to combat fraudulent activities and ensure the protection of consumers.”
According to Katz, a majority of the tickets stolen were for high-profile events that included Swift’s coveted Era’s Tour, as well as Adele concerts, Ed Sheeran concerts, NBA games and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships.
Katz said Rose and Simmons — as well as another suspect who remains at large — allegedly accessed StubHub’s computer system “to find a backdoor into a secure area of the network where already sold tickets were given a URL and queued to be emailed to the purchaser to download.”
“Rose and his co-conspirator re-directed the URLs to the emails of co-conspirators Shamara Simmons in Queens and a now deceased accomplice who lived in Queens,” said Katz.
They raked in $635,000 in profits from June 2022 and July 2023, according to Katz.
Rose and Simmons pleaded not guilty and were released pending their next court date.
Criminal Court Judge Anthony Battisti ordered Rose and Simmons to return to court on Friday. They each face a potential maximum sentence of three to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count.
