Scammed by tickets for Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee concerts add up to more than 10 thousand

The presentations of Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny represented the successful return of the mega concerts in Lima. Both shows sold out as soon as the tickets went on sale, however, when the date of the ‘Big Boss’ show arrived, the National Police ran into what would be a criminal organization who starred in one of the biggest scams in the history of this type of recitals in Peru.

To date they are more than 10 thousand affected by an organization made up of resellers, young people, influencers and people who were offered to earn around 300 to 400 soles per ticket that placed unsuspecting buyers, mostly young fans of the music of both reggaetoneros and dreamed of seeing in live your favorite artist.

Pamela Cabanillas, only 18 years old, is accused of being the ringleader of ‘Los QR de la fraud’ and that he would have seized more than two million soles as a result of the indiscriminate sale of fake tickets through social networks and using other young people so that the chain of deception reaches thousands of people, who when they arrived on the day of the concert were surprised that their tickets were fake or cloned.

Little by little, the police stations around the PNP were crowded with disconsolate young people and parents worried about denouncing this new form of scam that had not occurred before. Immediately, the head of the National Police began to investigate and discovered the ways and means that the criminal gang used to swindle thousands of people online.

According to the first investigations of the Fraud Division of the National Police, with only one ticket, this wave of deception was created for these two concerts and other shows such as Coldplay and the Peru vs. Paraguay match. Apparently, Cabanillas had some original tickets in his possession and faced with the desperation of the fans to get a ticket, he used social networks to start ‘reselling’. On Facebook, he joined groups looking for tickets and thus began the house of cards that fell to the ground when the thousands of cases were reported.

the clan of ‘QR of the scam’ they cloned the QR of the tickets and the bar code of the same were replaced by any that were found on the Internet. Thus, they made the unwary believe that they were original, but when they passed through the control, they were redirected to Minsa vaccination cards or to web pages that had nothing to do with the concert.

But the ambition of Cabanillas it did not stop there, since it was organized together with another group of resellers who recruited young people to also offer tickets and thus the chain came to more than 10 thousand people scammeds for the Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny concerts.

Cabanillas and its other two operators fled the country without any problem and with thousands of soles in their possession. She is in Europe, while her accomplices are living the high life in Colombia.

for the concert bad bunny, Ethel Pozo and Brunella Hornaconductors of ‘América Hoy’ were about to stay without seeing the concert, since their tickets had been cloned and they were not allowed to enter, but it was not only them but also their daughters, her husband and other people who were shocked knowing that they could not enter the stadium.

“What I feared happened, we are in a very big problem because they do not let us pass, the tickets are very expensive, like any person we buy them with great enthusiasm, nobody gives us a reason, we are asking everyone, but they do not give us an answer, “he said. La Pozo with a noticeably saddened face.

“We are here in anguish, we are a group that we bought from a promoter, there are many people outside, we do not know what to do, there are more than 40 people with a case similar to mineI hope they solve the problem for me, we feel terrible, “he added

An hour later and thanks to their contacts, the presenter and the 10 people who accompanied her entered without any problem and were able to enjoy the “Bad Rabbit” show.

Despite the fact that the police work to find the whereabouts of the gang ‘The QR of the scam’the truth is that in the last year thousands have been victims of various forms of online fraud, a dangerous situation that has not only exposed the precariousness of the system of various companies to avoid this type of crime, but that more and more people who fall easily and watch their money and life savings go up in smoke in just minutes.

“In Peru the most common online scam is phishing where through an email or a text message to the cell phone an unknown person sends you a link to a fraudulent website in order to steal your personal information and then enter your accounts and take over your money, “he explained to Infobae Jose Carlos Pazos specialist in cybersecurity and professor of Computer Science at UTEC.

Given what happened a few days ago with the million dollar ticket scam for the concert of reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny, the cybersecurity specialist commented that this scam modality It is not so common but it causes a lot of damage to the population.

He pointed out that great care must be taken in the face of this type of scam, since the companies that sell these tickets today do not have a system that ensures that said ticket is being sold to a single person. “It is a bit difficult to legitimize this type of ticket sale because the resale is not endorsed by an entity or organization,” he said.

Luis Gonzalez Orellanageneral manager of Teleticket Peru, indicated that before the pandemic this well-organized business of resellers moved about 30 million soles a year, but to date it has doubled.

held that resellers do not pay taxes and take 300-400% [de ganancias]. “These people have cloned our page. They only put a mask and instead of the .com they put the .net or .org, and the buyer does not realize it, people simply fall for the scam”, denounces the official. He also indicated that there should be stronger laws in the technological part and against resale.

While, Jaime Montenegrofrom the Head of Digital Business at the Lima Chamber of Commerce, stated that it is important to differentiate between what has failed in the sale of fake tickets for the Daddy Yankee event It has not been the QR code, which is a simple graphic element, but the security system and processes that were violated by unscrupulous people.

“What has failed is the system and not the QR code, which is a simple graphic, and how has it been compromised? What happens is that this system uses the QR as the only security element in its procedure. What is needed is to enhance it and add other elements to the QR. We must collect the experience of other countries where personal data is recorded, who bought the ticket, the DNI, in such a way that it is not necessary to export the information to another application to have to print the ticket, “he warned.

In 2021 alone there were more than 18 thousand reports of cybercrime casesa percentage increase of 92.9% compared to 2020, according to the National Observatory of Criminal Policy of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (Minjusdhs).

The Police, meanwhile, registered 14 thousand 671 complaints of computer crimes during the year 2021, 65% more cases than the previous year. From January to April of this year, there were 7,297 complaints of computer crimes.

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