The other day, I was browsing my social media feed when I saw a post from ENISA, a famous singer. She had posted on her social media page about scammers who were impersonating her and attempting to scam her fan base.
Go ahead and take a look at the message that she posted below.
Now, if the profanity and text in all capital letters were not enough, you can see that ENISA is upset about these scammers. Moreover, I do not blame her at all because I can imagine that she is constantly bothered by people who complain to her that they are getting scammed. Not to mention, I can’t think of a single person, celebrity or not, who would appreciate people impersonating them maliciously.
Scammers posing as celebrities are on almost every social media website that is out there. I cannot even begin to describe every instance of scammers that have slid into my DMs,
The reason that the scammers pose as Influencers:
Money, Money, Money. Scammers pose as Influencers for the money. The typical scammer doing these operations knows that these famous people have a lot of hardcore fans. Moreover, many people on a daily basis are trying to reach out to influencers with no luck. These scammers think that they can get some money from the fans who might be more gullible than most.
These scams have gotten so out of hand that even the Federal Trade Commission had to write an article on it!
How to be on the lookout against these scams
Here are some tips that I personally use to weed out scammers whom are posing as celebrities.
- If you think it’s the celebrity then it’s probably not.
- Elon Musk is not going to reach out to you randomly on a alternative X account and ask to hang out. These people have entire teams whom if they needed to contact you would do so in a more professional manner.
- Don’t click anything in the link!
- Money might not be the only goal from these scammers. They could want to infect your PC with malware to do more malicious acts. If you see a link from someone claiming to be a celebrity, or anyone you do not know, do not click it.
- Don’t send them money!
- If they ask for money from you then do not send it! It’s 100% a scam. Often times, these scammers will also ask for payments in Bitcoin, Prepaid Gift cards, and other ridiculous methods to avoid a paper trail
It doesn’t matter how hardcore of a fan that you are for someone. You need to use some common sense to avoid being scammer or having your device infected by these people. If you want to do your part in getting these people apprehended you can always consider reporting them to the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
I’m curious what are some attempts that scammers have done when they slid in your DM’s pretending to be a celebrity? Comment below and let’s discuss 😊
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