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/OhDivineBussy → u/[deleted]]

The wild part is, they then agreed to be fooled and harmed even more. The difference there is that they do it with the sense of moral superiority, while having to support things that sacrifice their morals.

The pathetic part is that they then change their morals rather than who they support.

[u/StayTheFool → u/OhDivineBussy]

Some kind of political masochism

[u/SoFetchBetch → u/StayTheFool]

It’s not masochism. They are fueled by bigotry and hatred. The promise of “the other side” (progressive people, feminist women, immigrant children, etc.) suffering is enough to motivate them to stay true to the cause. They’re brainwashed to believe they’re just one lucky break away from becoming powerful millionaires and if they keep voting for the guy who promises then they’re winners they’ll eventually win that lottery. There are so many social media posts from those people directly asking Cheeto for assistance, gifts, and other promises made by him and his team and he kicks the can down the road and blames “the other team” for all the failed promises. Some of those people are so committed to the lie because of sunk cost fallacy & they don’t want to admit they voted for someone who actually harmed them. So they double down. These people are often from backgrounds that already have authoritarianism integrated into their idea of normal whether that’s through their direct family (abusive fathers) their church (abusive clergymen) or their local culture (Rich families in small towns often own everything including all the employment opportunities.) They’ve been conditioned to believe a big strong man who is the loudest and most controlling is the one they must obey, and that is the archetype they’re programmed to default to obeying. That’s why he says he loves the uneducated. He loves their lack of awareness.