Perth online ticket scammer pleads guilty to more charges

A 19-year-old Perth woman is facing more charges after already pleading guilty to 22 charges of selling fake concert and festival tickets since December 2017.

Hannah Rebecca Valentine was charged with ripping off 100 music fans to the tune of $100,000, including those wanting to attend the recent Post Malone shows, last spring’s Listen Out festival and new year event Seasons at Ascot Racecourse.

She sold the tickets through Facebook and Gumtree under aliases including Natalia Sparrow, Daniella Walsh, Hannah Jane Mathews, HannahVal, Sophie-Marie Lewis and Jessica Lewis.

According to Senior Constable Fraser Munro from WA Police, “She received money via direct transfer into her bank accounts … but the tickets were either altered, or they’re just fake tickets in general, and other times she didn’t send the victims anything in return.”

Valentine’s sentencing of the earlier 22 charges was delayed when WA Police came up with 37 more alleged scammings.

But Valentine only pleaded guilty to 29 of these in the Perth Magistrate’s Court yesterday, pointing out the others were not relevant to her.

Her lawyer said she had started mediation sessions with the victims and some of the money had been paid back.

Valentine returns to court on July 15, with sentencing also to take place.

Responding to the case, Consumer Protection WA‘s Commissioner David Hillyard earlier said it received complaints about 16 scam-related ticket sales in 2018, one in January 2019 and one in February 2019.

“So long as consumers are only dealing with the primary authorised seller for reselling, we would view that as safe,” Hillyard told the ABC, adding that using only credit cards was advisable.

A spokesperson for Listen Out said on the ABC that scamming was rising and as a result, “We created an official resale site to help facilitate the safe sale and purchase of tickets.

“All our messaging implores customers not to buy tickets from third party retailers or people they do not know.”