Carousell suspends BTS ticket listings in Singapore until Dec 22 as fans flag resellers

Carousell’s suspension of BTS concert ticket listings in Singapore will remain in place until Dec 22, the date of the K-pop group’s final show here, the online platform confirmed on Friday (Jun 5).

The suspension applies specifically to BTS Arirang World Tour concert ticket listings. The platform said it would assess such suspensions “on a case-by-case basis, taking into account relevant advisories from the authorities and user safety considerations”.

On Thursday, Carousell had told CNA Lifestyle that existing listings were already “in the process of being removed”, and that affected users would receive a notice informing them about the police advisory.

The platform said it had employed an “AI moderation system” to detect such listings, but added that “as our moderation takes place after a listing is published, users may see newly-created listings temporarily”.

It added that while BTS ticket listings had gone up, it had “not seen evidence of scams being perpetrated thus far”. Carousell said it would continue to work closely with the authorities “to support user safety on the platform and do what we can to ensure sales are suspended only in rare cases”.

This comes after the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in an advisory ahead of presales that it had reached out to Carousell to remove ticket listings for the upcoming Singapore shows.

On Wednesday, the first day of presales, resellers and interested buyers moved quickly on platforms such as Carousell and social media app X as demand for tickets surged.

Fans in local ARMY group chats had been actively flagging listings on Carousell offering BTS concert tickets at inflated prices – several times their original price – with some sharing screenshots of posts and coordinating reports in an effort to have them taken down.

CNA Lifestyle observed several resale listings on Carousell on Wednesday afternoon, including one offering four VIP tickets for S$5,000 and another at S$6,688 for four VIP tickets. These and many other listings seen throughout the day quickly became unavailable to view and appeared to have been taken down at the time of writing.

Some sellers had also listed tickets at prices as low as S$1, directing interested buyers to contact them privately for the actual selling price.

The resale activity had also spilled onto X and drew criticism from fans.

In one post seen by CNA Lifestyle, a seller shared what appeared to be a screenshot of a Google Sheets document listing more than 150 tickets, complete with section, row and seat numbers, while offering buyers a PDF version of the tickets.

The post drew criticism from fans, some of whom tagged Ticketmaster Singapore's account and accused resellers of depriving "real fans" of tickets. Others warned users against engaging with the listing, writing "don't be fooled", pointing out that Ticketmaster tickets are not issued as PDF files upon checkout.

Another X user was seen offering VIP tickets – originally priced at S$388 excluding booking fees – for S$350, attaching a screenshot and screen recording that appeared to show the tickets on a mobile device with the option to transfer.

While some users expressed interest in the offer, others questioned the authenticity of the listing, pointing out that tickets are currently non-transferable.

At the same time, some fans who were unable to secure tickets during the presale had begun posting "WTB" (want to buy) listings on both Carousell and X in the hope of connecting with sellers. Such listings on Carousell were also becoming unavailable to view.

Authorities have repeatedly urged fans to purchase tickets only through authorised channels and to be wary of scams involving concert tickets.