Revellers scammed into paying for tickets to a non-existent New Year's Eve yacht party off Adelaide's coastline will be refunded, online ticketing platform Eventbrite says.
SA Police is investigating the incident where more than 100 people paid for tickets to the party, but turned up at Glenelg to get on a boat that never arrived.
They had been hoping to see fireworks on the shore from the boat while enjoying drinks, food and music onboard.
An Eventbrite spokesman said those who had paid for the $120 tickets through the platform would be refunded today.
"All evidence we have right now points towards the conclusion that the advertised 'NYE on the Bay Boat Party' in Glenelg was a fraudulent event, and we are therefore refunding all attendees in full today," the spokesman – based in Ireland – said.
"It can take 5-7 business days for those refunds to show in the attendees' accounts.
"We will learn from this case to continue to evolve our detection mechanisms to stay ahead of scammers, and we are cooperating with South Australia Police to support their investigation into the people behind this event."
Ticket-buyers and real estate agent duped
The event had been promoted through social media.
TikTok user Jayden Clark posted videos about the scam, including footage of people turning up at the dock at Glenelg.
"This was hosted by Eventbrite which is supposed to be … a reputable event organising brand and app, and the event's been taken down, the Facebook page for the event taken down, the Facebook profile attached to the event — the organiser — gone," Mr Clark said.
"Everything gone. At this point, we've all come to the conclusion we've been scammed."
Adelaide Hills real estate agent Callum Kennedy says his identity and ABN was stolen to make the event seem legitimate.
He had registered a similar, but not identical, business name to the one linked to the scam, and social media accounts promoting the party appear to have copied his profiles.
"What we have found is that they have gone into extreme depths to pretty much match up as many details as they can with myself," he told ABC Radio Adelaide today.
"Most of the social media profiles that they've created are nearly exactly the same as mine, minus say one letter or adding another number on."
He has spoken to detectives about the identity theft, as have ticket-buyers.
He said the hope was Eventbrite could identify the scammers through the bank accounts the money had been paid into.
Call for more protection for consumers
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says ticketing companies need to have better protective measures in place.
ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said ticketing companies should be more vigilant about protecting consumers from scams.
"I think ticketing companies and others, just as scams move into more and more different platforms, need to be looking at how they're exposed and looking at what they need to be doing to protect consumers," she said.
