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In the same way as Romance Fraudsters use strong and reliable persona such as Military or Medical personnel to convince victims that they are genuine, the use of celebrity persona to defraud potential victims is also common.
The criminals may use high profile names of celebrities such as Aled Jones, Tom Jones, Elon Musk, Martin Lewis and various other well-known personalities. They may even have “harvested” and used the name of one of your favourite stars off your social media profile if that is public.
Fraudsters may contact you on social media or dating sites claiming to be that star or celebrity of screen, stage or the Pop music scene. They then ask to start a relationship, followed shortly later by requests for money to their own “Charity” or in one case a tempting offer of a holiday away with them – usually at your cost!
In reality, are such celebrities going to contact someone out of the blue who they do not know?
In other cases, fake websites have been set up with fake product and financial product endorsements claiming to be from well-known figures.
How to avoid and report celebrity ad frauds
When you see an advert online featuring a celebrity endorsement, there are a few questions you should ask yourself:
Is the celebrity posting from their official profile or account? Or has the advert been posted by a genuine brand account? You cannot always trust a verification tick, but a quick check of the account posting an advert can usually confirm if it is a fake account.
Are you being asked to hand over money or personal information? Do not be tempted to give this information away without checking the authenticity of the advert.
Check the web address: If you have clicked on an ad, look at the web address – is it the official site? If there are slight changes in spelling or errors, that is a red flag for a fraud.
Never click on links if you are suspicious of the content of the website or message, and always research any schemes by checking official websites
Finally, do you think that this celebrity is likely to be endorsing that product, or wishing to start a relationship with someone they have never met?
ASK SILVER
This is a service anyone can use to check any suspect emails, URL’s, phone numbers or texts.
Just take a screenshot or photo of the suspect message, open Ask Silver - Free Scam Checkers then copy and paste the image in the window. This will review the message and provide a report on the validity of the message.
Please feel free to share these messages with any vulnerable friends, relatives or neighbours