Facebook scammer cons islander out of £800 with fake Oasis tickets

Wednesday 16 October 2024

The owner of a popular Havre des Pas beach kiosk has warned others to watch out for Facebook scammers claiming to sell Oasis tickets, after she was conned out of £800 by someone impersonating her friend online.

Jayne Gruchy, the owner of Hooray Henri's beach café at Havre Des Pas, explained that she had seen a friend and regular customer – whom she described as a "serious" and trustworthy person – selling the Oasis tickets on Facebook.

When tickets went on sale for the Britpop band's reunion tour at the end of August, fans found themselves waiting for hours in online queues – only to find that "dynamic pricing" had made ticket prices jump from around £150 to around £355.

After a day of ticket sale chaos, the UK leg of the reunion tour was sold out.

Pictured: Oasis recently came under fire after fans reported sky-high ticket prices due to Ticketmaster's 'dynamic pricing' system.

But, like Jayne, many people are still trying to get their hands on re-sale tickets.

"It was a friend on Facebook who I thought was legitimately selling four Oasis tickets," explained Jayne.

"I reached out to them, and they said they had four tickets for £150 each."

Nothing about the interaction seemed suspicious, Jayne said.

The pair moved to communicating on WhatsApp, and Jayne asked to wait until she could pay – which the scammer had no problem with.

"There was no rush, no sense of urgency for money," she said. "That made it sound more legitimate."

She eventually parted with £800 of her money – £600 for the tickets, and an extra £200 to supposedly cover the name changes – on Sunday 13 October.

The scammer, still impersonating her friend, asked her to transfer the money to their partner's account.

But the unfamiliar bank did not ring alarm bells, as Jayne knew that the friend's partner was American.

Pictured: Jayne is the owner of Hooray Henri's, a popular beach kiosk located at the top of Green Street slip.

Jayne only found out something was wrong when her friend came to her beach café and said that his Facebook account had been hacked.

"Obviously, he's very, very upset," said Jayne. "I couldn't even look at him. It's not his fault."

She reported the incident to the police and to her bank, and is hopeful that she will be able to recoup most of her money.

Jayne also managed to get a picture of the scammer by calling the number she had liaised with on WhatsApp, and taking a screenshot when he answered the video call.

"Of course, I'm alright – but I'm smarting," said Jayne.

She warned others to be vigilant when buying items off Facebook friends – for example, by calling their landline first.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true," she said.