Ontario woman pleads guilty to defrauding Taylor Swift fans out of $265K in ticket scam

An agreed statement of facts says the couple spent almost $140,000 of the money on online gambling, resulting in a loss of roughly $56,000.

An Ontario woman and her partner have pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 100 Taylor Swift fans out of more than $260,000 in a fake ticket scheme centred on the superstar’s Eras Tour. Denise Tisor was known as a reliable reseller of tickets to concerts and events before Taylor Swift played six nights in Toronto in November 2024, according to an agreed statement of facts presented by the Crown and defence. Tickets to the Eras Tour shows at the Rogers Centre were, in the words of the statement of facts, “almost impossible to purchase for most fans,” who turned to resellers for help.

The court document stated that many people reached out to Tisor, whose nickname was Denise Blackhawk, to ask if she could help them find tickets. Get daily National news She claimed she had a contact at the Rogers Centre who could get their hands on seats.

Through Facebook messages, texts and email, Tisor went about setting up tickets with fans and taking payments by e-transfer, according to the agreed statement of facts. She told the victims they would receive their tickets between 48 and 72 hours before the concert was set to begin. But in the hours leading up to the first show on Nov. 14, 2024, nobody had received their tickets.

The facts said Tisor claimed her contact at Rogers had stopped responding to her. Police investigated that person and concluded they had “no involvement in the sale of fraudulent concert tickets.” In total, Tisor took $265,330 in payments from 107 victims who thought they were buying tickets to the Eras Tour.

The agreed statement of facts shows some fans spent as much as $5,100 with Tisor in the hopes of getting to see Swift. Some money was paid into the account of Tisor’s partner, Davide Blake, the statement of facts said. The couple spent almost $140,000 of the money on online gambling and lost $56,355, the facts said.

Tisor pleaded guilty to one global count of defrauding the public, while Blake pleaded guilty to one count of possession of property obtained by crime. — with files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald