Fake concert promoters apparently bilked Indonesian music fans out of an estimated $60,000 in ticket sales for a Mötley Crüe show that was never scheduled to happen, officials and news reports say.
More than 1,500 people had bought tickets for $40 each by the time the scam was uncovered late last month, according to Tempo Interactive, a news website.
But unwary fans weren’t the only ones fooled by the mock promotion. Local media outlets proved equally susceptible.
A Sept. 21 article in the Jakarta Globe, a local English-language paper, announced that the heavy metal group would play its first-ever show in Indonesia on Oct. 8.
Band members quickly responded to the rumor as word spread through social media sites. On Twitter, drummer Tommy Lee called the fake concert the work of a “shady promoter.”
The group issued a statement on its website the day after the Globe article ran, saying no agreement for a show “in Jakarta or anywhere else in the country were ever made.”
It also warned fans to be wary of any vendors advertising the nonexistent concert. But by then, tickets had been on sale for at least a month.
Central Jakarta district police chief Lt. Col. Angesta Romano Yoyol said an investigation is ongoing but there are so far no suspects.