Gazprom Arena scam: thousands of Kanye West fans had their money taken, left without tickets and no right to refund
The legal conditions for purchasing tickets for Kanye West’s concert at the Gazprom Arena have raised significant concerns. Tickets are sold as part of a promotional offer, the terms of which buyers must accept upon purchase.
These conditions explicitly state that tickets cannot be refunded voluntarily, and a change in the performing artist by the organizer does not constitute grounds for a refund. Essentially, a buyer could purchase a ticket to see Kanye West, but if the organizer later replaces him with another artist—such as Shaman—the buyer would still have no right to cancel the ticket or get their money back.
However, even that issue is secondary right now. The primary concern is that people have paid their money and have no idea whether they will actually receive tickets to a real event or what is going on at all.
According to official notices, tickets could only be purchased on the event’s official website. Thousands of people bought tickets and immediately received payment confirmations. Yet, the tickets themselves were never delivered—even after numerous attempts to retrieve them through the audience support service on the official site.
The recovery feature is broken, throwing an error with every attempt. This is a widespread issue: thousands of comments have already accumulated under the event’s announcement posts from people facing the exact same problem.
Furthermore, while contact information is listed on the event website, none of the communication channels are actually operational.
To date, there has been no official statement from the Gazprom Arena, the organizers, or the ticketing platform.
As it stands, people have had funds debited from their accounts and hold official receipts, but they still have not received the tickets. The website continues to throw errors. The most unsettling part is the total uncertainty. It is unclear whether this is merely a technical glitch, how widespread it is, or when it will be resolved. Moreover, the complete lack of official communication naturally raises a critical question: is this whole situation even legitimate?
Columnist
Investigates connections between the shadow economy and organized crime. Works with corporate registries and offshore schemes.