Mum loses £12,000 after trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets for her family

After Taylor Swift announced she’d be heading around the globe with a new arena tour, tickets proved to be like actual gold dust.

Her Eras tour became the highest grossing of all time, with 152 shows in total across five continents being played when it ends.

The singer is now on her final leg in Canada, where things will draw to a close next month – and where one woman has been left distraught after losing £12,000 from fake tickets.

Ottawa mum Mel Keogh splashed out for 28 tickets to one of Swift’s Toronto shows, hoping that the Swifties among her family and friends would be able to see the star in person.

However, she ended up falling victim to scammers, meaning she had to break it to the group that they’d not only not landed tickets for the 23 November show, but were also thousands of pounds lighter.

Speaking to CTV News Ottawa, Mel said: “To break it to the girls that we weren't going - was horrendous."

She said her daughter and five friends had spent the last year lovingly making friendship bracelets for the show, and putting lots of time into planning the perfect outfits.

"[It's] all we've been talking about for over a year," Mel explained.

The group had spent months making bracelets (CTV)

"They are absolutely ecstatic. My daughter, I can speak to her specifically, knows every Taylor Swift song, every word, every album, every era, everything."

She had booked the tickets in August, but just a few weeks ago found out that they weren’t real – despite using an independent ticket broker she’d relied successfully on before.

They genuinely believed they’d proceeded with as much caution as possible, sister-in-law Patricia Keogh said, having been sent seat numbers and confirmation codes as they’d found in the past.

She said her daughter knows 'every Taylor Swift song' (CTV)

"And that's really upsetting that we let our family down," Patricia added.

"How could we have not seen this? How did we get duped? We're smart people."

Mel had been part of a group of 32 who purchased tickets together from the same broker, with a total loss of about £14,000.

Mel was gutted when she realised the tickets weren't real (CTV)

But her family had bought the bulk of them, having spent around £12,000 on 28 tickets.

While the family has filed a police report and brought in lawyers, the believe it’s ‘all gone’.

"I still hope there's a way to get them to the concert," Mel said. "I still hope."