In our continuing efforts to try to help you protect your money, we bring you the latest installment in understanding scams. As we mentioned before in our previous piece, members of the Nerdbot staff have experience working in banking and finance. We would like to be able to use that information to help protect you against scams that are taking place in the world today. No one should fall victim to losing money to a scammer. That’s why we want to talk about the celebrity scam. How it works, what it’s about, and what to do if you or a loved one are involved in one.
Please keep in mind, this is one of those scams that sounds super obvious to most people. If you’re on the outside of it looking in, the incredulity of it is blatant. But it doesn’t feel that way to the person being scammed. So as we discuss this, remember, this is something people are legitimately falling for.
The Celebrity Scam
It often starts with a message someone gets. It can be on social media or by email, generally. They get contacted by someone claiming to be Keanu Reeves. Or maybe it’s Taylor Swift. It could even be Joe Biden. Basically, it’s someone well-known and famous. It turns out the person is in trouble. Someone has betrayed them or put them into a bad situation. An accountant is holding their assets hostage. Or something of that sort is taking place where this person needs money to get access to their money. Now they’re reaching out for that help because they don’t know who they can trust.
Clearly, this is a scam. No celebrity or public figure is going to reach out to a random stranger for help. Sometimes this ploy is part of a romance scam too. This person pretending to be Keanu Reeves is also playing the part of a romantic suitor. They’re hoping the person believes them enough to initially get their interest and then get emotionally involved. If they can form that emotional attachment, anything and everything they say now carries more clout. It seems absurd, but it’s a play on human emotion, and oftentimes these things work.
Why It Works
Part of the reason behind this is how it makes the victim feel important. We all desire to feel recognized and validated. If someone takes an interest in us and boosts our feelings, it feels empowering. Scammers know this. That validation is magnified when it comes to a celebrity. Now we’re being recognized by someone we respect or who is in a position of power. Our association with them gives us a taste of glory. It’s intoxicating. Of course, in these scams, though, it’s all a lie.
The premise of that lie holds power over people, though. To demolish that lie is to take away their feelings of empowerment and validation. That can manifest in the form of denial and anger. If you confront a loved one over something like this, they can wall you off. They may even be motivated by the scammer to do so. They might tell the person to keep this private or tell them that other people wouldn’t understand. It keeps the victim in an echo chamber where nothing else makes sense except the lie.
And how do we know it’s a lie besides the obvious incredulity of the face value of the celebrity scam situation? Well, let’s break things down.
Why a Celebrity Scam Doesn’t Make Sense
- People don’t reach out to random people for help. If you were in a desperate situation for help, what would you do? Would you reach out to a random person online or turn to someone you know? Why would you waste your time asking an unknown person instead of a source you know? Trust us. Taylor Swift has a lot more people they can ask for money besides you.
- Money doesn’t unlock money. These scenarios are always factually inaccurate. The idea that a person’s money is locked behind other money is never true. If someone has the power to lock a person’s access to funds, then they have the power to take those funds. So if someone claims, “Oh, I have two million dollars, but I have to pay this company $5,000 to release the access,” that makes no sense. The company would have taken the $5,000 out of the two million, and that’s that.
- The bigger the celebrity, the bigger the lie. Big celebrities have access to resources that can help them. They have lawyers, accountants, assistants, etc that help them. If Ryan Reynolds was in a legal situation where he couldn’t get to his money, his lawyer would handle that. He wouldn’t turn to you. Maybe it would be different if it were like Benmont Tench, former keyboardist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. But even he has people. There are so many better alternatives than talking to random people online. However, people don’t often think about that logic when they’re in the middle of the celebrity scam.
- Communication breakdowns. This is less the case today thanks to AI, but it often still holds. Scammers tend to avoid more personal communication methods because it’s harder to fake who they are. Anyone can claim to be anyone in a text message. It’s a bit harder to fake a voice. It’s harder still to fake a live phone call. Even harder to fake a video call. Again, this can still be done with AI, but the scammer may not have access to these tools and may put off or delay communication to establish this. Or they might make excuses for why they can’t talk or not talk to you live.
Stay Safe
These are all things you should be keeping in mind if a celebrity is asking you for help. Don’t even consider it real. It’s not. What do you do, though, if it’s a family member in the midst of this? Well, you have to try and appeal to reason. That won’t always work if they’re emotionally convinced of something, though. It’s still worth a shot to point out the logical fallacies. It also doesn’t hurt to go to the police. A scam is still a crime no matter where it’s happening. Maybe the police can lend a hand in explaining why this is fake.
Love and support go a long way towards helping people get out from under these scams. Try to make your friends and family aware of them. People lose millions of dollars every day by falling victim to these ploys. Stay smart, stay vigilant, stay informed.
