Scalpers Are Trying To Sell Fake Lizzo Tickets For $19,000

Lizzo is coming to Australia — which is really good news if you’re a ticket-buying bot.

Yesterday, tickets for the Melbourne stop on the ‘Truth Hurts’ singer’s tour went on pre-sale. They were apparently snapped up within minutes. Fans waited hours — some even said up to two days — but to no avail. Those bots have fast trigger fingers, after all, and the show was sold out within moments.

It’s not the last chance that Australian fans will get to see the singer on tour: tickets for the Sydney show go on regular sale this Thursday. But the speed at which the Melbourne tickets got snapped up does not bode well for anybody’s chances.

It’s not surprising that the tickets are in such high demand. Lizzo has had an extraordinary year, with songs that she wrote years ago climbing back up the Billboard charts. She’s done the entire meteoric popstar rise thing in the space of a couple of months, courting controversies and stealing hearts along the way.

What is surprising, however, is just how craven some ticket scalpers are being. On Viagogo, a ticket resale site, what are being advertised as front row tickets for the Melbourne show are retailing at over $19,000 dollars a piece. They’re not all that expensive — more restricted tickets are going for $1,335, while others are at $335. But that’s still over double what you’d be looking to pay if buying it from a valid outlet.

And that’s the thing: as the tour promoters have already stressed, those mega-expensive tickets aren’t even valid.

“We urge you to be aware that Lizzo’s Melbourne sideshow tickets are sold only via Ticketmaster,” reads statement sent to Music Junkee by BBE. “Tickets are dispatched 48 hours before the show — literally none of these bots like Viagogo are selling valid tickets.”

Within moments of the tickets selling out, legions of fans around the country took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

Not to be dramatic but what the fuck @Ticketmaster, have been trying for two days for Lizzo tickets 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/06R1VJKnT5

— li-li 🌻 (@lixmjay) November 18, 2019

Did ANY of my buds manage to get a Lizzo ticket? I got one in the presale yesterday and I’m getting a strong vibe it’s just gonna be me and a bunch of ticket-buying bots going???

— Elyce Phillips (@ElycePhillips) November 18, 2019

Lizzo ticket releases should operate using the Nicki Minaj scale:
– Priority access to fat ass big bitches in the club
– General access to skinny bitches in the club

— Brodie Lancaster (@brodielancaster) November 18, 2019

Very annoying that bots beat fans to all the @lizzo tickets within 3 seconds but very cute to imagine them as lots of roombas whizzing around the dance floor to truth hurts at the forum.

— Michelle Brasier (@michellebrasier) November 18, 2019

Oh, and the lucky few who did manage to snag themselves a couple of seats did the only sensible thing: they gloated about it, as you do.

I literally bought 4 lizzo tickets on my phone at 9am yesterday while eating a cookie. Truly what happened to the rest of ya

— peesha (@jocelynseip) November 18, 2019

Of course, if there’s any good news to take from all of this, it’s that it pretty much guarantees that the singer will be back in our country very soon, and probably playing much bigger venues. Australia have sent Lizzo a message, loud and clear, and it goes like this: we’ll take whatever you’ve got.