Oasis ticket scam: ‘My Instagram was hijacked for a £1,400 fraud’

Summary

Lauren Jones discovered her Instagram account had been hacked after receiving verification codes for her LinkedIn, Vinted, and Facebook accounts. The hackers used her account to advertise fake tickets to an Oasis concert at Wembley Stadium on 26 July and scammed her friends out of £1,400. The fraudsters also demanded $100 (£75) to return her account and impersonated her so convincingly that friends and family believed they were speaking to her. Jones remains locked out of her Instagram account three weeks later, and the platform has not responded to her requests for help. The scam was shared further when a former colleague was asked to help promote the fake ticket post. Official data shows £1.6m was lost to gig ticket fraud in the UK last year, with Oasis-related scams being particularly prevalent.