BTS fans desperate to catch comeback tour lose more than $100,000 to scammers

When Vevee logged in to Ticketmaster on 9 June, she hoped her years-long wait to see supergroup BTS was finally drawing to an end.

Like millions of fans everywhere, the 26-year-old thought she was ready for battle. She had even taken the day off from work.

The septet's mammoth global tour was making a stop in her backyard – the Indonesian capital, Jakarta – and as a longtime fan, she couldn't fathom missing it.

Perched in front of her computer, eyes glued to her fateful queue number, Vevee waited for hours. When it was her turn, she was told the tickets had been snapped up.

But there were more sales. So she tried again, and again, but her luck did not change. "It felt impossible because the demand was just too crazy", she tells the BBC.

Determined to secure her spot, Vevee found an account reselling tickets on X and splashed out $1,200 for four VIP seats. That's worth about two months of her salary at a logistics firm.

But they soon stopped responding. "Right after I sent the money, they ghosted me. It's horrible. I am so sad and heartbroken," says the 26-year-old.

Desperate fans in South East Asia, where BTS is performing 15 of 88 shows, have lost more than $100,000 as scammers cash in on explosive demand.

It has been a rollercoaster of a month for the band's fans, who call themselves Army. Elated to see BTS on the road again after the pandemic and a three-year hiatus, but frustrated by super-competitive ticketing wars, they have become easy targets.

In Thailand, lawmakers are hearing a complaint by 126 fans who were duped by an offer to help them "wait in line" for tickets.

Scammers have also infiltrated fan groups online, promising exclusive access or lower prices. Once money changes hands, they vanish. Some even offer "power of attorney forms" – typically used to hand over legal decision-making to someone else – to convince targets the tickets are authentic.

These are familiar enough tactics that authorities have issued multiple warnings. But fans are still falling prey to them.

The tour, which kicked off in April and stretched well into 2027, will span 34 cities. BTS and their record label Hybe stand to make nearly $2bn (£1.5bn) from their reunion, derived from concerts, merchandise, licensing, album sales and streaming revenue, some analysts told Reuters news agency.

Across Asia, the number of people vying for tickets exceeded what's available by 15 times, the BBC understands.

They are still adding new dates because of the staggering demand. Just last week, Jakarta and Bulacan in the Philippines learned they would each host a third show.

When the new date was announced, Vevee decided to "fight for those tickets again", but on official channels, unlike last time when panic got the better of her, she explains.

"I was about to go into a meeting at work and was so terrified that someone else would grab the tickets. I just wanted to transfer the money quickly to lock them in, she says.

"If I had just taken a moment to calm down, I might have spotted the red flags."

In Singapore, the police have received at least 62 complaints involving BTS concert tickets since 1 June, with losses amounting to more than S$68,000.

E-commerce company Carousell has suspended the reselling of tickets on its platform, and the ban will be in place until 22 December, the date of BTS' final show in Singapore.

Last week, the Malaysian police said they have received 28 reports from individuals claiming they had been cheated while trying to secure tickets. Authorities are trying to trace "mule accounts" involved in the transactions, they say.

In the early years, BTS' concerts were largely in South Korea, Japan and the US. As the band grew more famous, and fans from across the world joined their "Army", their schedule expanded to more of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

But the ongoing Arirang World Tour is the first time the band will stage multiple shows in five South East Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Tickets in the region are priced between $100 and $300. The most expensive package includes access to pre-show soundchecks, premium seats and BTS merchandise.

For fans like Vevee, who have followed the group through its ups, downs and then its meteoric rise, watching the comeback tour on home turf is special.

Vevee says she was 14 when she discovered BTS, about a year after their debut in 2013. She loved the music, but she also loved the seven members – RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin and Jungkook – whom she says she found "very genuine".

In 2019, she flew to Bangkok alone to watch BTS on their last world tour. She says it was her first time travelling alone and she didn't know anyone at the concert but she got "so much help" from fellow fans. "It was truly an unforgettable and wonderful experience."

Seven years on, when she found out BTS was coming to Jakarta, she began saving up. "I prepared so much to get these tickets, but honestly, it's not just me. Every single army [fan] prepares intensely for this."

She says some fans rented computers at internet cafes for a whole week because they couldn't risk not finding a spot on the day of the sales. They hoped the high speeds would boost their chances.

"In Indonesia, we aren't just fighting the ticket war," Vevee says. "We fight to secure the best internet cafe and we even fight to rent high-end phones. It's a war on every front."

And when they lose, they are despondent.

"Now that the Philippine stop is finally happening after what feels like forever, it hurts knowing that people who waited nearly a decade might not get the chance to see them," a Filipino fan wrote on Threads.

"Some of us aren't just trying to attend a concert. We're trying to finally see the seven people we've been rooting for for years."

There are also fans who simply don't want to stake it all on their luck.

Last week, Juraluk Kunaruk lodged a complaint before the Thai parliament on behalf of 125 victims, each of whom transferred hundreds of dollars to the same X user days before tickets went on sale.

The user had promised to help snag good seats. But the day sales opened, the X account disappeared.

"I had been observing this account for quite some time... They have many reviews and followers so they looked reliable. The prices were reasonable too," says Juraluk, who lost 25,000 baht ($760) paying for what she thought were VIP packages.

Over the last two weeks, the 23-year-old has spent hours travelling from her hometown to Bangkok to meet lawmakers.

"The MPs have promised us they will push things through to try to get us back the money. So I'm still hopeful," she says.

She also hasn't given up on the concert: "I still want to go because I don't know when I will get another chance to see them."

This is not surprising because scams have hit hugely popular concerts in the past, including Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Some fans have called on concert promoter Live Nation and its ticketing partners to do more to guard against this.

Ticketmaster, a Live Nation subsidiary managing ticketing for the BTS tour in many countries, says it has already "stepped up its fight against ticket scalpers and bots with new AI technology and tougher rules".

For example, tickets will be verified against concertgoers' email addresses, while fans holding resold tickets may be turned away on concert day.

Fans should "only ever purchase tickets through official sources", a Ticketmaster spokeswoman tells the BBC. "The artist's website will always be able to point fans in the right direction."

But disappointed fans seem unable to resist what feels like one last shot.

Cookie, a fan in the Philippines, turned to a reseller after failing to get tickets twice. She thought she had been careful.

"I added her to Facebook, I checked her account, what she studied, where she's from," says the 30-year-old customer service associate.

Like other victims the BBC spoke to, Cookie hit a wall after paying. The scammer blocked her on Facebook, and she never got the tickets.

"I feel ashamed. I didn't even tell my family or my closest friends what happened," Cookie says.

"I don't want to be judged or hear [them say] 'you're dumb'. It was a desperate move since I really wanted to be there."

Vevee tried her luck again knowing it would be "a tough fight" because the latest show in Jakarta falls on the birthday of one of the members, V.

She failed in her first attempt at the pre-sale on Friday. "It seems like absolutely everyone is aiming for that final show."

Ticketless and in tears, she strategised for the next day's general sale.

She and her friends split up across Jakarta, and "each of us tried to buy tickets from different locations, using different internet connections and accounts".

And this time, it worked. She got the tickets.

With reporting by Virma Simonette Rivera in Manila