The last two nights of Coldplay at the Lluís Companys stadium, more than one, two and a hundred cried, and not because of the emotion of seeing the hypnotic show by Chris Martin's band live. Since Thursday, dozens of people began to explain on their social media accounts that they had been scammed by purchasing tickets that were not valid. Given the magnitude of what was coming, the head of the investigation unit of the Mossos d'Esquadra of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi approached with a few of his agents and in the incident office they spent two nights acting as psychologists and consoling old people, young people, nationals and foreigners, powerless because they could not enter and had been deceived.
Although it may seem unbelievable, for the moment, both the Mossos and the National Police, who are also gathering affected people, have identified two alleged fraudsters, one Gabri and one Pepe. Of both they have the names, surnames, authentic identity documents, bank accounts, telephone numbers... Anyway. An endless amount of information that during the last months they offered their victims with absolute peace of mind, with the certainty that, perhaps one by one, the scam would not come to fruition, but without anticipating that those affected could unite and the accusations against both they would be forceful.
The researchers estimate that the number of those affected could easily reach a thousand victims. How they read it A thousand people who paid a reasonable price, not crazy at all, of about 120 euros for each Coldplay ticket.
Ana Escudero is a young publicist from Barcelona who was finally able to be at the concert on Sunday because a member of the organization literally took pity on her and let her in. "They knew about my odyssey." And that was none other than buying two tickets from Gabri, a few months ago, after seeing the sale announcement on Twitter.
“I had never bought on resale. Never. I am cautious. Responsible. I asked him for all kinds of guarantees. Photographs. Identification document. All. Absolutely everything, ”she explains on the phone and without a voice due to the hangover from the concert on Sunday.
On Thursday he already verified that things were not going well. He discovered a young woman from Madrid on Twitter who claimed to have been scammed by a certain Gabri. “I tracked her down, talked to her, and nearly died when I found out it was the same guy.” And she didn't give him time to call him, because the scammer himself phoned her to tell her that she was very sorry, that he had been sold a fake ticket, but that she would return her money. "I swear that if you don't pay me back, you'll remember me forever," he warned her over the phone.
That same Thursday, Escudero set up a campaign on Twitter looking for victims and they all met in the Plaza de Espanya to report it at 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 their own complaints grouped in the same number of proceedings. The same thing is being done by the National Police in Madrid with other procedures and victims from abroad.
At the moment the case is not prosecuted, waiting to gather more number of affected. A figure that both the Mossos and the Police warn that it could reach a thousand. The two men 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 criminal record, but Pepe does, for the same events at previous concerts. In the last hours, at least Gabri has begun to return the amount of the tickets. But not to all. Ana Escudero did, the scammer's mother did it. Others have received a document as a transfer has been made that has not arrived.
The company in charge of the filters in the stadium has a system that will shortly confirm how many of the tickets that arrived at the entrances were identified as false in four days. With this data, the investigators will know the scope of a scam that, above all, has played with the illusion of many people who were left without attending the concert.
