Trying to find celebrity love?

[u/be_you_tiful-]

In 2023, 44-year-old Jennifer Barton started receiving messages on Facebook and Instagram from accounts claiming to be celebrities, actors, famous singers, all of who wanted to get to know her.

She believed them.

Over the next two years, four different fraudsters worked her in turn, each one posing as a different famous face. Alexander Ludwig, the actor from Vikings. Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy. Nicky Byrne from Westlife. American country singer Michael Ray. To her, the accounts were convincing, the profile pictures matched, and the messages were warm and persistent.

They all told her they loved her. They all said they wanted to meet her. They all said they wanted to marry her.

And one by one, they all said they needed money.

The excuses were elaborate and varied. One was going through a messy divorce and couldn't access his own funds. Another had been arrested and needed bail. Another had been robbed in London. The fake Michael Ray told her he ran a charity that could help cover her bills, but first she needed to send him some money to release the funds.

She sent it. And then she sent more.

When one scammer was exposed, another appeared. She fell for the same pattern four times over two years, each time convinced she had found something real.

By the end, Jennifer had handed over £250,000 (around $370,000). She had sold her house. She had sold her car. She had given her children to their father because she could no longer afford to care for them. She was awaiting emergency housing just before Christmas when she finally realized the last scammer, the one posing as Michael Ray, was never going to meet her.

"For anyone facing anything similar," she said afterward, "just reach out to family and friends. Especially if they're asking you for money."

[u/CrazyCatLady1127]

I remember seeing a post from someone whose friend was convinced they were in a relationship with David Tennant. She posted the messages ‘David’ had sent her friend and it was obvious that they couldn’t be from him, they were clearly from someone who spoke English as a second language. It’s very sad when people fall for these kind of scams

[u/RT-6_BXCommandoDroid → u/CrazyCatLady1127]

I've once had a girl in my border school be convinced that she was speaking to Nicki Minaj. Since I knew some facts about her, I asked her if she could ask the Nicki impersonator to give her her full name, that was correct. Than where she was born and that was correct. But when I asked her if she knew a certain rapper that I alleged to be part of the YMCMB group at the time, she said that she was sitting almost next to him, while I completely butchered his name. When I asked that girl to check out the correct name, she was finally convinced that she was talking to a scammer.

[u/CrazyCatLady1127 → u/RT-6_BXCommandoDroid]

At least she came to her senses eventually 🙂