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Bought tickets to see Daft Punk in Shanghai recently? If so, you might have been taken for a ride.
Yesterday, the Shanghaiist website reported that a secret Daft Punk show was set to go ahead in the city on February 13th, pointing to a Facebook page for the event (which now states that the event has been cancelled). When it did actually contain some content, the page reported that "the french mythical electronic band Daft Punk is coming in Shanghai for one very special night on friday 13th February with a devious concept called dafthidden 09 tour as the concert venue will be kept hidden till Friday 13th morning. Daft Punk is working on his new album for 2 years and want to share the sound with their fans only before the album launch. And they planned 3 dates in Asia including Shanghai, 2 in Europe and 1 in US." The dubious grammar may have set a few alarm bells ringing, but many eager fans took the leap of faith, paying 500RMB ($73) and leaving their phone numbers to be contacted with the gig's location on the morning of the show.
One of the reasons that many fans were convinced was the presence of a link to dafthidden.com address, which was designed and run by a Shanghai-based web developer by the name of Sun Chen. After bloggers at the 56minus1 site tracked him down, Chen disclosed that he had been hired to design the site by a "French guy" by the name of "Andy," but had nothing to do with the actual ticketing procedure, whilst adding that his employer was currently neglecting to answer his phone.
With an official confirmation from Daft Punk's PR saying that there will be no date in Shanghai this Friday, and with a reported 3800 tickets sold, it looks like there are going to be a lot of unhappy fans once the news spreads.

According to who.godaddy.com, pasted below is some information regarding the Web site that was created for what appears to have been a successful scam pulled off in Shanghai surrounding a “secret” Daft Punk concert scheduled for Friday night – 3800 people apparently bought tickets yesterday at 500 RMB a pop. This information may prove helpful in tracking down the identity of the individual(s) behind the scam (and maybe getting your money back), however, is doesn’t necessary incriminate the individual mentioned below, for a couple of reasons:

• because the whole affair has yet to be officially outed as a scam (56minus1 is still holding out hope that it’s an elaborate buzz marketing campaign for an actual performance…unlikely), despite there being such an announcement on Pitchfork; when its announced on Daft Punk’s official Web site as a scam is when we should lose all hope (or on Saturday, when we know the concert didn’t happen on Friday), and;
• this information likely just points to the person who created this site and registered the domain; this person is likely not the person who orchestrated the scam as the info below is publicly available and easily findable

At any rate, here is the relevant information:

Domain: dafthidden.com
Created: 2009-01-25 08:29:30
Expires: 2010-01-25 08:29:30
Created: 2009-01-25 09:29:31
Changed: 2009-01-28 12:35:41
Owner name: Vermillion Orange (more info here)
Organisation: Vermillion Orange
Person: Sun Chen (on Facebook)
Address: XXX (erased from 56minus1 at the friendly request of Sun Chen)
Zipcode: XXX
City: XXX
State: XXX
Country: XXX
Phone: XXX

[UPDATE 1: a friend of 56minus1 who knows Sun Chen has connected with him via telephone. Chen is based in Shanghai and was initially unaware of "what's going on," saying only that he was simply contracted to build the Web site by a "British guy" "French guy." Chen is now trying to contact his client, but apparently no one is answering.]

[UPDATE 2: 56minus1 has spoke directly with Sun Chen, the previously mentioned "British guy" is actually a "French guy," who went by the name "Andy" (Da Silva?) (email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Chen has a mobile number (+86 13764581774) for Andy, but it is not working. Chen said he was paid in full for his work on the Web site. Sun recommends those looking for a refund or explanation to go back to the ticket office listed on the Web site, directions here. If you want to contact Chen, please do so in the comments below or send him a message via his Facebook profile. Chen assured 56minus1 that he had no idea the site was to be a front for a dishonest venture by his client (and is still unsure if its actually a hoax) and that he was just doing the work he was contracted to do.]

[UPDATE 3: There is now a "human flesh search engine" oriented Facebook group for those who have fallen victim to the apparent scam, link to "Daft Fucked - hidden concert SCAM? info and updates in here" here. The original "official" Facebook page for the event is here.]

[UPDATE 4: The suspected scam artists (Thomas Ramirez and Andy Da Silva) now have their own Facebook page. The photographs below were taken by surveillance camera at the ticket office they rented from Oasis Property Management. Lastly, SmartShanghai recently published a thorough summary of the entire the fraudulent affair.

It appears that the viral marketing scheme used by the concert promoters to get the word out and get people buying tickets is working in the other direction now, as people search for the identities and whereabouts of the two guys behind the fraud.
A group of erstwhile concert goers have started this group here, called (quite deliciously) "Daft Fucked" and are busy collecting information and trying to work up the ladder of people who were unwittingly employed in the scam.
Another pertinent link is the Facebook event listing here, in which one of the ticketing/ PR agents has written out his back story of how he came to be involved with the "concert organizers." (Refer to the above link to read the message originally written in French.)
In this message, he confirms that the concert is a fraud and points the finger at a French guy called Thomas Ramirez and a Swiss guy called Andy Da Silva.

He goes on to explain that the two worked for a company called "Red Wall Events" based in Beijing. The author and a few other ticket agents were hired through EnjoyClassifieds to do PR for events targeted to French people living in Shanghai. They were hired to sell tickets and do Facebook PR for the "hidden" Daft Punk concert. He initially had his doubts, but knowing Daft Punk as an act prone to do this sort of thing and his familiarity with the "hidden concert" concept in Paris, he went along with it. The promoters also assured him of their connection with Daft Punk's people and a promotion agency in Paris called "We Love Art" that does this sort of thing.
Sunday night, many tickets were sold and his doubts resurfaced, but he was assured that on Tuesday he would be shown the venue where the concert would take place. Monday he tried to call the concert organizers to ask about the terms of refunding, but was unable to talk to them because they were busy at the location dealing with the logistics of setting it up.
On Monday afternoon, acting on his suspicions, he finally got in touch with Daft Punk's record label EMI, and was redirected to an associate of Thomas Bangalter in Los Angles [Bangalter is a member of Daft Punk]. The associate confirmed the post author's fears that the concert was indeed a hoax and the electronic duo Daft Punk had no knowledge of it. The author tracked down the promoters on Monday night, accusing them of perpetrating a fraud. They were apparently out at a restaurant celebrating the Lantern Festival. The organizers again argued that it wasn't a scam and said that they would prove the legitimacy of the thing by showing the venue the next day. The author accused them of setting up a hoax, they got into a fight and the call ended. On Tuesday morning he got a text message to go to the office for a meeting at 11am.
He showed up, no one was there, and the money was gone. He then went to the building managers (the organizers had been renting the ticketing office from the Oasis property management company), the lease was in the names of the fraudulent organizers, although the building management didn't have passport photocopies of the two names on the lease.
Then he tried to track them down at their hotel, but couldn't find them in the registry as presumable they were using fake names.
He finishes his account by apologizing to people and stating that he got scammed like everyone else and is co-operating to try to track down the two individuals behind the hoax.
And for the nail in the coffin, here's an email forwarded to us by Charles Belin of Kiken Prod, originally sent to him from Daft Punk's agent, Peter Elliot:
"Thank you to every one who gave us the heads up re: the bogus daft punk show in Shanghai.
I can categorically state that daft punk are not coming to China in February. The advertised "secret" or "hidden" daft punk show is a hoax perpetrated by fraudsters.
Daft punk are not touring during 2009.
Please spread the word, and if any one has any info as to who the people behind the above mentioned scam are, let us know.
Best regards,
Peter Elliott
(agent to daft punk)"

Sources:

• http://www.residentadvisor.net

• http://56minus1.com

• http://www.smartshanghai.com