A Coldplay plan wearing a headband with pictures of band members posing at the entrance of the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium before the world tour concert in Jakarta, Indonesia on Nov 15, 2023. — AFP
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): The Central Jakarta Police are investigating hundreds of reports alleging ticket scams after many would-be concert goers failed to get into Coldplay’s first-ever concert in Jakarta.
The people claimed that they had bought the tickets from third parties through online transactions but later were unable to enter the Bung Karno Sports Stadium (GBK) in Central Jakarta, the concert venue, on Wednesday night (Nov 15), because they were either not subsequently given the tickets by the sellers or were sent fake tickets.
The police said 400 people had lodged reports, claiming a total of 1.3 billion rupiahs (RM391,000) in losses.
“The method was that people would order tickets, then they tried to collect the tickets, but up until the concert day, they did not receive them,” said Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Susatyo Purnomo Condro, as quoted by Antara.
He said the police were still trying to track down the alleged perpetrators and look into the possibility of the ticket money being refunded to the victims.
The police are also setting up a special desk for similar reports, including incidents of invalid bar codes on tickets, which could have been another form of ticket scam.
Several posters on X reported incidents at the ticket-scanning area. Many of those who had purchased tickets were not allowed entry because their tickets could not be scanned. Ticket officials explained that their tickets had already been scanned, despite the ticket owners not having scanned them.
This caused frustration among many attendees, poster @IchaVarma said her ticket broker could not be contacted.
Those who bought tickets through the cash-on-delivery (COD) system also had yet to receive confirmation by 9.24pm, even though Coldplay began performing at 8pm Many of those unable to get their tickets alleged that they were victims of the same young woman, identified only as G, who sold the tickets.
She allegedly scammed buyers with tickets worth 15 billion rupiahs by rotating the 100 tickets she owned to appear as if she had 8,000 tickets. One source claimed that the money had been transferred to a bank in the Netherlands to prevent seizure and repayment.
The ticket management was also heavily criticized by concert goers, as they had a hard time entering the venue. The chaotic and unclear flow reportedly caused some people in line to pass out. There were also very few food stalls, given the length of the lines.
One of the entrance gates to the concert was also reportedly broken through at one point in the night. A video posted by X account @gitanisme showed a mass of people running past the gate, many allegedly without proper tickets. Clashes were also reported among online motorcycle taxi drivers, concert security and police at the end of the concert.
