Ontario couple pleads guilty to defrauding victims out of over $265K in Taylor Swift ticket scam

A Hamilton couple admitted to selling more than $265,000 worth of fake Taylor Swift tickets ahead of her Toronto Eras Tour shows. Sean Leathong reports.

Denise Tisor and her common-law partner David Blake left a Milton court on Wednesday after each pleading guilty to a count of defrauding the public—the result of selling fake tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, taking in over $265,000.

“To hear her plead guilty, probably, in my opinion, now for the lesser sentence, really kind of is a gut punch,” says Tammy Allen.

Allen is just one of the 107 victims who purchased tickets from Tisor in August 2023. She was confident because Tisor is someone she knew and someone she sees in the community. In fact, Allen still sees Tisor as recently as last week.

“She has had no effort to repay anyone,” Allen says.

Back in November 2024, as Taylor Swift played six sold-out shows at the Rogers Centre, CTV News spoke to several victims who had purchased tickets from Tisor.

Many had given the tickets to their kids as Christmas gifts, and they were confident that it was for real because Tisor had come through in the past. But as the concerts drew closer, no tickets arrived, and victims had to face the harsh reality.

According to the agreed statement of facts, 107 Taylor Swift ticket purchasers from across Southern Ontario purchased $265,330 worth of tickets from Tisor between August 2023 and November 2024.

CTV News first contacted Tisor in November 2024. At the time, she said that the money had been stolen from her by a third party.

Some ticket funds gambled away

However, court documents show there was no third party involved and that both Blake and Tisor were aware that they were defrauding their victims.

The statement of facts goes on to say, “Between July 1, 2023, and November 28, 2024, Ms. Tisor and Mr. Blake used $139,144 of these funds to place multiple online gambling bets on various platforms.”

The two also made approximately 350 cash withdrawals from ATMs, totalling in excess of $297,000 between the same time period, according to the statement of facts.

Tisor went by the name Denise Blakhawk online, and while she didn’t speak outside court, a lengthy Facebook post from the account Blakhawk Denise said in part, “Today, I simply want to say that I’m sorry.”

“Almost two years ago, I was facing a serious gambling addiction that completely took over my life,” she added.

“Addiction consumed my thinking. At the time, all I cared about was feeding that addiction. Looking back, I can see how much pain it caused, and I have to live with that every day.”

While she can empathize with Tisor’s addiction, Allen says, “I can’t empathize with the life decisions made to support said addiction.”

She says that her kids play lacrosse in the same organization as Tisors’ kids and that seeing the person who took from so many young kids doesn’t sit right.

“Probably what hits me the most is she walks around with no shame and remorse and doesn’t seem to have a care in the world, whereas people are tiptoeing around her because they’ve been impacted by the situation and they don’t know how to interact in spaces where they should feel safe and comfortable. There has been, as far as I can see, zero backlash.”

A sentencing date for Denise Tisor and David Blake has not been set.