The last two nights of Coldplay at the LluÃs Companys stadium, more than one, two and more than a hundred cried, but not because of the emotion of seeing live the hypnotic show of Chris Martin’s group. Since Thursday, dozens of people began to explain on social media accounts that they had been scammed by purchasing tickets that were not valid. Faced with the magnitude of what was happening to them, the head of the investigation unit of the Mossos d’Esquadra de Sarrià -Sant Gervasi approached a few agents at the incident office and they spent two nights acting as psychologists and comforting people old, young, national and foreign, powerless because they could not enter and had been deceived.
Even if it seems a lie, at the moment, both the Mossos and the National Police, which also gathers those affected, have identified two alleged fraudsters, named Gabri and Pepe. They have the names, surnames, authentic identity documents, bank accounts, telephones… Finally. A non-stop stream of data that the last few months offered victims with absolute peace of mind and with the certainty that, perhaps one by one, the scam would not reach a large port, but without foreseeing that those affected could join and that the accusations against both would be strong.
Researchers estimate that the number of victims could easily reach a thousand victims. As you read it. A thousand people who paid a reasonable, not crazy, price of around 120 euros for each Coldplay ticket.
Ana Escudero is a young publicist from Barcelona who was finally able to go to the concert on Sunday because a member of the organization literally took pity on her and let her in. “They knew my odyssey”. And this was none other than Lade who bought two tickets to Gabri a few months ago, after seeing the announcement of the sale on Twitter.
“I had never bought resale. never I am prevented. responsible I asked him for all kinds of guarantees. Pictures. Identity document. All. Absolutely everything”, he explains over the phone and without a voice because of the hangover from Sunday’s concert.
On Thursday he found out that things were not going well. He discovered on Twitter a young woman from Madrid who claimed that she had been defrauded by someone called Gabri. “I looked for her, I talked to her and I almost died when I discovered that it was the same individual”. And he didn’t have time to call him, because the scammer called him to say that he was very sorry, that he had been sold a fake ticket, but that he would return the money. “I swear to you that, if you don’t give me back the money, you will remember me forever”, he warned him over the phone.
On the same day, Escudero set up a campaign on Twitter to look for victims, and they all gathered in Plaça d’Espanya to report to the police station. In the end, they agreed with the investigators that she would be the first to enter and the rest of the victims would present the complaints grouped in that same number of proceedings. The National Police does the same in Madrid, with other proceedings and victims from outside.
At the moment, the case has not been judicialized, as they hope to gather more affected people. A figure that both the Mossos and the Police warn could reach a thousand. Both the man and the other acted the same and it remains to be seen if there is some kind of connection between them. One is from Jerez and the other from Seville, and both reside in Madrid.
Gabri has no background, but Pepe does, due to the same events in previous concerts. In the last few hours, at least Gabri has started to return the amount of the tickets. But not everyone. To Ana Escudero, yes, the scammer’s mother did it. Others have received a document stating that a transfer has not arrived.
The company in charge of the filters at the stadium has a system that will soon confirm how many of the tickets that arrived at the entrances were identified as false over the four days. With the data, the researchers will know the scope of a scam that, above all, has played with the illusion of many people who could not go to the concert.
