How does that old adage go? If something sounds too good to be true it probably is? Thousands of music fans in Indonesia have learnt that the hard way after a fake-concert scam was uncovered in Jakarta a few weeks ago that raked in an estimated $60,000 before being outed as a fraud.

The trouble all started when an article appeared in The Jakarta Globe on September 21 announcing that Motley Crue were due to play their first ever show in Indonesia at Pantai Karnival in Ancol, North Jakarta. Indonesians jumped at the chance to see the band and the scammers had quickly sold over 1500 tickets.

However fans were left disappointed when news broke that the concert was a scam, that in fact Motley Crue never planned to tour the country, and that their tickets were completely worthless.

“I don’t know why [the concert] was cancelled,” said Dedi Supriadi who purchased tickets to the scam event. “We only believed the concert was going to be held because we’ve been to many concerts before.”

Supriadi admits however that he became suspicious about the concert when the band jumped on twitter and alerted fans that they had no plans to visit Indonesia.

By then it was too late to get a refund as the scammers had already made a run for it with all the cash. Officials are investigating.

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