Ticketmaster is enforcing new rules around the way fans transfer Taylor Swift tickets, amid a wave of reported scams.

The ticketing giant recently updated its website to say that ticket transfers for Swift’s concerts cannot begin until 72 hours before the event. Previously, Swifties could transfer tickets between Ticketmaster accounts at any time.

Ticketmaster representatives confirmed the rule but did not respond to questions about the reason for the change.

It comes after a spike in reported hacks of Ticketmaster accounts that have impacted Swift’s Canadian fans, as well as ticket holders for other events hosted by the company.

Some customers posted on social media that concert tickets they purchased months ago were suddenly transferred from their Ticketmaster account without their consent.

Stolen tickets must be recovered, the company says

The company said in a statement that it is working to “reinstate fans’ tickets.”

“The best way fans can protect themselves is to set a strong, unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email address, where we often see security issues arise,” it wrote.

“Scammers are looking for new cheats in every industry and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable. That’s why Ticketmaster is continually investing in new security enhancements to protect fans.”

Francine Vachon, an associate professor of information systems at Brock University, is skeptical that Ticketmaster’s changes to ticket transfer will have a real impact on alleged ticket theft, pointing out that the change does not prevent theft from happening within the 72 hours before the event. .

She told CBC News that these reported thefts trace back to a data breach this summer.

In JulyTicketmaster alerted Canadian customers that a data breach had occurred, giving a third party access to customers’ personal information. This may have included their name, contact details and even credit and debit card details, the company said at the time. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner subsequently launched an investigation into Ticketmaster to assess its security safeguards.

“That’s how people can log into people’s accounts and steal their tickets,” Vachon said. “If my daughter had an account and she was a Swiftie, they could just use her password, go to her account, take her ticket and transfer it to their own account.”

There is a push for better login security

While it’s always good advice to change your password to something that’s secure and unique after a data breach, she believes the company needs to do more to actively protect consumers. She said Ticketmaster could have enforced two-factor authentication at login, before or after the breach, but that has not happened so far.

“They didn’t encrypt their data, and now people’s tickets are being stolen,” she said.

The effectiveness of limiting ticket transfers to just before shows will soon be tested: Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour comes to Toronto next month, with the first of six shows kicking off on November 14. The Toronto shows will be followed by three shows in Vancouver in December.

LOOK | The factors that cause the number of concert tickets to increase:

Why concert tickets in Canada are so expensive

Canadian Swifties say they are flying to Europe to attend the singer’s Eras Tour because of lower ticket prices. CBC’s María José Burgos explains why concert tickets are so expensive in Canada and what needs to change to bring prices down.

Tickets for Swift are a hot item for some Canadian fans flown to Europe to see her instead of competing for seats on the Canadian dates.

Ticketmaster’s handling of ticket sales has come under scrutiny recently. After Oasis saw tickets flying off digital shelves at sharply rising prices in early September, the company came under fire for its use of dynamic pricing, which ties the price of tickets to demand, causing the price to increase.

The British competition watchdog has done that started an investigation into the way Ticketmaster handled Oasis ticket sales to see if the company broke consumer protection laws.