One Tech Tip: How to avoid Celine Dion ticket scams as she makes her grand concert comeback

Paris authorities are warning fans that Celine Dion's grand concert comeback is likely to attract ticket scams. The management at the Plenitude Arena, where Dion will perform 16 shows in September and October and another 10 in May, is bracing for the delivery of devastating news to hundreds of fans – their tickets are fake.

Dion's return to the concert stage after years away has generated massive demand for tickets, creating an ideal situation for scammers to exploit. Cybersecurity experts warn that when demand is high, fraudsters see a golden opportunity to manipulate and rob fans of both their money and hope of attending the shows.

The arena's marketing director, Céline Trioux, says the highest risk of scams is when tickets first go on sale and in the shows' immediate build-up. She advises fans to only purchase tickets from authorized sites such as AXS France, Ticketmaster France, and Fnac Spectacles. Buying from individuals or social media postings is strongly discouraged, as there's no way to verify the ticket's authenticity.

Group-IB, a cybersecurity firm working with Interpol, has identified numerous fraudulent websites impersonating official ticketing platforms and Dion's own websites. These scammers often use URLs similar to the real ones, such as celinedion.co instead of celinedion.com, or ticketmaster-celinedion.fr instead of ticketmaster.fr. Trioux emphasizes the importance of checking the website's URL before making a purchase.

The Paris concert section of Dion's official site provides clickable links to authorized ticket sellers, but even with these measures, the arena expects possibly hundreds of fraud victims per night. Fans who have fallen victim to these scams may feel devastated, as the concert represents a significant milestone in the 58-year-old singer's career, her first since being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder in 2022.