Thousands of Taylor Swift fans hit by UK ticket scams

Thousands of fans of pop megastar Taylor Swift have been hit by a wave of concert ticket scams ahead of her tour in the UK later this year, a British bank said Wednesday.

At least 3 000 victims are likely to have been tricked into buying fake tickets since July, with over £1 million ($1.24 million) being lost to fraudsters so far, Lloyds Bank said.

The average amount lost by each victim was £332, though in some cases it was more than £1,000.

The bank said more than 90 percent of reported cases started with fake adverts or posts on Facebook.

Concert ticket scams had risen by 158 percent since last summer compared to the same period a year earlier, the bank added.

US singer Beyonce, British band Coldplay and musician Harry Styles are the artists most commonly used in the targeting, it noted.

Across all concert ticket scams, victims were losing £133 on average.