Two cyber crooks are facing “eras” behind bars for allegedly swindling nearly 1,000 concert tickets – mostly for Taylor Swift’s blockbuster tour, prosecutors said Monday.
Tyrone Rose, 20, of Kingston, Jamaica, and Shamara P. Simmons, 31, of Jamaica, Queens, were both busted in Queens over the resale scam of Swifties that raked in $635,000 between June 2022 and July 2023, according to the Queens DA’s Office.
Aside from a bulk of tickets previously purchased by adoring fans hoping to lay eyes on the pop icon – whose worldwide Eras Tour will go down in history as the highest-grossing of all time – the crew also allegedly targeted Adele and Ed Sheeran concerts, NBA games and tennis’ US Open, officials said.
“According to the charges, these defendants tried to use the popularity of Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other high-profile events to profit at the expense of others,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement. “They allegedly exploited a loophole … to steal tickets to the biggest concert tour of the last decade.”
Rose was working for a third-party StubHub contractor in Kingston, when he and another at-large suspect allegedly intercepted about 350 StubHub orders – amounting to 993 tickets, prosecutors said.
The thieving duo allegedly used their access to StubHub’s computer system to weasel their way into a secure area for tickets that were already sold and emailed to the buyer to download, the DA’s Office said.
They emailed those links to Simmons, and another Queens resident who is now deceased, prosecutors said.
The Queens pair then posted the tickets on StubHub and resold them for profit, according to the DA’s office.
Rose and Simmons were both arrested and arraigned Thursday on charges of grand larceny, computer tampering and conspiracy, the DA’s office said.
None of those charges are bail-eligible under state law – so Criminal Court Judge Anthony Battisti released the pair and ordered them to return to court on March 7.
Rose, who was visiting the Big Apple when he was arrested, was ordered to surrender his passport.
Both could each spend between 3 and 15 years in prison if convicted on the top count.
