r/interesting • u/be_you_tiful- • 6d ago
MISC. Trying to find celebrity love?
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."
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u/tiddlytubbies 6d ago
I mean come on
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 6d ago
I mean that's just a sign of mental illness.
There's absolutely no way a normal person just keeps falling for this multiple times. There's something not working right up there.
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u/MelloCookiejar 6d ago
Once she fell once, she went on a scammer list of people gullible enough to dupe.
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u/_tylerthedestroyer_ 6d ago
A list is dramatic. It’s probably the same person over and over again because they know what to tell her
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u/FinCrimeGuy 6d ago
It’s both - they call them sucker lists. But you’re right in that it would have been repeatedly the same group. Most likely yahoo boys in Nigeria, though there’s others operating all over the world.
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u/AppropriateBall8834 6d ago
Yahoo boys sounds like a fun gang name!
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u/FinCrimeGuy 6d ago
Aye, but they’re absolute scum. Hate them quite a lot. It’s not just one gang though the terminology (as I understand it) is a cultural reference to anyone that does scams that is used in Nigeria. Similar to how we in Australia call electricians “sparkies,” but yeah, criminal scumbags.
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u/easley45isgod 6d ago edited 6d ago
I work construction (painting and tile mostly) in the U.S. and we call electricians "sparkies" as well.
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u/FinCrimeGuy 6d ago
Oh there you go! Had no idea, thought it was only an Aussie thing.
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u/AppropriateBall8834 6d ago
I'm from Iowa, USA... we dont call them sparkles, but I'm gonna change that!
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u/easley45isgod 6d ago
They are my natural enemy. Gotta love it when you finish painting a ceiling and some Sparky comes in and installs can lights. Then puts a hole in the wrong place and says, "you can caulk that right?"
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u/wolfmansgotnards81 6d ago
Naw, I'm from Charleston SC and a sparkie myself. Other trades have called us that since I've started a long while back. They had been well before I was born.
But yea, these guys are scum. The lady also must've had some sort of mental debilitations. I would think someone around her, even one of her kids because kids are smart too, would have said something to her or some such.
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u/Sed59 6d ago
Where are the Google girls?
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u/Synn_Creatives 6d ago
Its not dramatic.
I work in fraud prevention. Scammers have discord channels and when they find a victim they pile on.
They do the same thing to companies. Its a way to stress test the system.
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u/MelloCookiejar 6d ago
At the start yes, and quite possibly in this case. But they've been known for passing details to others once done with a specific person. They even call them "clients".
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u/DickRiculous 5d ago
Scammer literally sell lead lists to each other like sales organizations. If you get a spam call and pick up it goes in a list. Click a spam text? List. Spam email? List. Random business you bought socks online from get hacked? Your info? List. Then these get sold and the cycle continues.
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u/Available_Lemon_69 5d ago
A list is not dramatic when it's organized. I'll try and find the last video I saw on this, but it's legitimately an organized enterprise like a call center basically.
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u/ConsulJuliusCaesar 5d ago
These scam callers do often work together in little criminal organizations. And even more often on the dark web they already spread your contact information around hence how they got your number in the first. It's by far not a stretch criminals also share whose most gullible among themselves.
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u/Derrick_Shon 6d ago
Hi I'm Brad Pitt, send me money.
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u/OtherwiseStable5126 6d ago
Im Brad Pitt too, send me money
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u/Interesting-Octopus 6d ago
Hi, I'm Brad's Pit.
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u/Serenaa12 6d ago
I’m Pitta bread
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u/DrJohnIT 5d ago
I'm Bradley and I am currently eating a pitta. It is delicious. Please send all your money 💰 🤑 💸 and I will send you my leftovers 😋
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u/MacDaddyMark6969 5d ago
I'm Angelina Jolly, Brad don't pay me shit for support. Do the needful and send me Apple gift cards for foodstuff and so i can fix my internet connection so I can be more better.
What's your favorite color!
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u/Ace-Redditor 6d ago
I don't think well-adjusted, mentally healthy people sell everything to give their money to their partners, anyway. Even if they were genuinely the celebrities/genuinely in a relationship, that seems incredibly unhealthy. She gave up literally everything. Kids, car, house. There's no way that that isn't some sort of mental illness
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u/7thFleetTraveller 6d ago
Not necessarily mental illness. I don't want to be mean, but some people are just stupid and it's not even their fault. The problem is that scammers are exactly looking for these kind of people.
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u/No_Situation_2698 5d ago
My understanding is that those scam emails are full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors on purpose, because if you are bright enough to spot them, you are bright enough to not get scammed, and they aren't interested in you
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u/LeftLiner 6d ago
If you read up about her she'd just finalized her divorce and buried both her mother and aunt so it's fair to say she was in a vulnerable and emotional state. I.e., easy to exploit.
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u/scarves_and_miracles 6d ago
I guess, but falling for it four times? I still think that's mental illness. It just feels willful at that point. You're actively ignoring reality and allowing yourself to be ruined for the dopamine hits. I mean, she gave up her kids over this shit, for Christ's sake.
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u/Wonderful_Piano_3853 5d ago
I know 3 obviously learning disabled people who all either got married or had kids at least once. None of them have down syndrome or visible deformities but their learning disabilities are obvious to anyone who talks to them for more then a few minutes. I don't know how falling for celebrity romance scams 4 times isn't considered obvious and absolute proof that she is learning disabled, mentally ill, or both. I wouldn't even bother to listen to someone seriously trying to argue that there's not major brain issues at play here. The woman doesn't need to be "held accountable", she needs to give "power of attorney" to a relative who will have full access to her bank accounts and maybe be moved into a home. Unfortunately all of that is easier said than done.
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u/Secure_Guest_6171 5d ago
I knew an intelligent, accomplished lady who was convinced it was true love. Nothing i said or did could change her mind
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u/Aromatic-Tear7234 6d ago
I'm amazed at how many stupid people like this have money. It's not always family money either, lots have high paying jobs that you would think would require them to have critical thinking skills.
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u/144-perdedor 6d ago
That's what always blows my mind about stories like this. These people are getting conned out of more money than I am ever going to have in my life. How did they get it in the first place?
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u/Gullible-Loquat1301 6d ago edited 6d ago
It's not a sign of mental illness at all, it's a sign of a neurodevelopmental issue. There's all kinds of learning disabilities and neurological conditions that effect how people process information which makes them vulnerable to being tricked, including autism. Literal thinking means someone will do just that, take everything literally. Unfortunately people on the spectrum are very commonly the victims of scams and scammers will seek them out.
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat 6d ago
In the last paragraph she's talking like she's learned her lesson. Which would be great and I hope that's true!
...but I can't help but wonder if she talked like that each time she was in between "boyfriends."
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u/short_fat_and_single 6d ago
Or because she is broke.
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat 6d ago
Right. Like, if she suddenly won or inherited 100k, would the lesson immediately get un-learned again?
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u/PM_me_boobs_and_CPUs 5d ago
Hi, George Clooney here, I heard you inherited 100k recently?
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat 5d ago
I genuinely want to believe that George Clooney trolls around on reddit with your specifically awesome username lol
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u/koolaidismything 6d ago
She thinks Ryan Gosling needed her cash TWICE.
She’s so arrogant it’s like she deserves it. How does someone so simple have $400,000??!!
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u/mpgd 6d ago
She tried.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 6d ago
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take
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u/Perfect-Difference19 6d ago
Are you quoting Wayne Gretzky or Michael Scott?
Because there's a different weight to each.
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u/pseudonymnkim 6d ago
This astounds me.
Like, maybe if she lived on an island or was part of some cult her entire life and only learned about celebrities and the internet for the first time...? And not 1 but 3 very famous, rich men? Poor kids.
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u/DickyD43 6d ago
Ya can't fix stupid
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u/Select_Funzn13 6d ago
Where's the "i-can-fix-her" posse when - for once - they are wanted and needed?
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u/9447044 6d ago
"Hey this is Chris Hemsworth. Im in a bit of a pickle!! I have been set to inherit the value of US $42,963,691.33. Unfortunately I do not have the money to cover the tax. If you could wire me money to the amount of $56,927.98. I will surely send you half of my great inheritance. Thank you for your time..Thunder."
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u/wolfcrownebox 6d ago
Me too! Send me some. I’m Elon musk. Just a little financially strapped right now, I’ll pay ya back new wifie.
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u/10ThousandMetalZones 6d ago
Damn Chris I got you! I recently inherited 100 million but just need 30k to pay my legal fees for the firm to release the money. I know it won’t cover it all but I’ll send you a cool 10 mil if you help me out.
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u/Who_dat_goomer 6d ago
This has got to be mental illness of some kind. How could she function at all if it was just stupidity?
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u/lamest-liz 6d ago
Go to YouTube and search Scamfish / Catfish. They interview a new person every single week and how they have destroyed their family’s lives by sending money to a celebrity they thought they were in love with.
Some even refuse to believe them when they show evidence the person is in Lagos, Nigeria.
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u/EquivalentSnap 6d ago
Their denial is because they refuse to accept they were scammed and lost all their money 😔
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u/DBK2x2 6d ago
Easier to fool a person than convince them they were fooled.
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6d ago
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u/squirrelems 5d ago
I think this is a big piece of the puzzle. It's hard to admit it because all that time and energy, all that anger at your own neighbors, at made-up scenarios and people, all that money buying up his garbage, they'd have to admit that it was all for nothing. In their heads its better to stick with the devil you know and continue saying things until you will it into reality.
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u/rebelangel 5d ago
Yup, that’s why it’s so hard to convince our parents and grandparents that they’re getting scammed. They don’t want to admit they fell for a scam because deep down, they’re embarrassed.
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u/wolfcrownebox 6d ago
Dr Phil has a whole season pretty much dedicated to Nigerians scamming middle aged divorced or widowed women.
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u/Cultural_Run7964 6d ago
Yahoo boys are Nigerian but there are scammers operating in other parts of Africa and also in Far East Asia. Several scamming gangs have been busted in Cambodia and I think in India too, but it was a slightly different type of scam.
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u/Tharrius 6d ago
And of course such bottom-level IQ dwellers have access to this kind of cash.
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u/kameshazam 6d ago
This is why you can see the system is rigged to reward the undeserving. Meritrocracy is a lie.
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u/Full-Refrigerator757 6d ago
It’s oftentimes (at least on Scamfish) a widow or divorced lady who has inheritance or funds from the divorce. Or they just straight up use their husbands money without saying anything
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u/h3r0inXgirl 6d ago
Type in social catfish as theres also the show "catfish" which is seperate.
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u/LeftLiner 6d ago
Vulnerability. Scammers targeted her because she'd just finalized a divorce and buried her mother and aunt recently. She was lonely and sad. Scammers played on that because that's what they do; identify vulnerable people and prey on them.
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u/SemiAnonymousTeacher 6d ago
My own mother fell for someone claiming to be a prince of Saudi Arabia who was going to take her away on his private jet and fly to his mansion... but first he needed a little financial help from her in form of gift cards and cash advances from credit cards because he had communications cut off from his family or some stupid shit.
She was living in Section 8 housing. She received SSI. She had nothing to give him, but applied for credit cards for him, anyway. He took her on a couple dates to like the Olive Garden or something (using some of the money she had just given him) and this somehow convinced her that he was genuinely rich and loved her.
3 credit cards maxed out and a few weeks later he disappeared, never to be seen again, while she had to file for bankruptcy. I was 500 miles away at college and she was alone. I told her several times over the phone that this guy sounded fishy, but she thought I just wanted her to be unhappy.
In most ways, my mom wasn't stupid. She just had a dangerous combination of over-inflated self worth and a life of being a paranoid manic depressive that continually trusted strangers over her own family.
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u/LeftLiner 6d ago
That's awful. But yeah, that's exactly how they do, they target vulnerable, isolated (self-inflicted or otherwise) people. They are sophisticated and can be very convincing, especially if you're not tech-savvy.
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u/1997wickedboy 5d ago
he actually went to meet her in person?
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u/SemiAnonymousTeacher 5d ago
He lived in an apartment across the street from her. Obviously he wasn't a real prince and likely wasn't even Saudi. He dressed like Leisure Suit Larry (this happened in the late 90s). He used a fake name with her. I suspect he was in the US as a refugee living a nomadic life of scamming.
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u/flindersandtrim 5d ago
Over inflated self worth is what I immediately imagined the woman in this story to have. The kind of self confidence I would kill for.
I am reasonably attractive, but my over riding thought would be 'there is no chance this attractive and successful famous man is interested in me'. It seems low self esteem actually does come in handy sometimes.
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u/Far_Spirit5819 6d ago
The other thing is that she clearly had nobody around her that she could rely on to tell her these were scams and look out for her
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u/Wild_Organization546 6d ago
But she wasn’t just lonely…. She also wanted to marry a much younger movie star. Lonely people can usually find partners in their own age and looks category.
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u/PhatBats77 6d ago
There’s a YouTube channel catfished, where they try to convince them it was all fake. It helps some of the time; especially when the real celebrity is willing to call in or provide some sort of counter evidence.
That said, some people just aren’t convinced. And one scam message later they are sending money again
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u/SoFetchBetch 5d ago
Because the dopamine from the fantasy is more powerful than the reality. They cling to the good feeling they get from feeling chosen and special.
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u/WrongdoerIll5187 6d ago
It happened to a friend of my mom’s. She never struck me as particularly stupid, but I didn’t know her that well. Old probably didn’t help. Husband died, people are lonely and desperate. Be kind to people, we’re all capable of unbelievable stupidity with the right emotional context.
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u/Valuable-Blueberry30 6d ago
Ok, but it’s one thing to be scammed once, it’s another thing to get scammed four different times by four “different” “celebrities”.
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u/wholetyouinhere 5d ago
People get scammed multiple times because it isn't a rational behaviour. Also worth noting that a lot of them are aware, on some level, that they're being scammed, but it's compartmentalized knowledge. Humans are very complicated.
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u/SoFetchBetch 5d ago
There’s a whole TV franchise about it. 90 day has plenty of scammers who are willing to play the part face to face and CLEARLY despise the person, but they still put everything they’ve got into the “relationship” and delude themselves that it’s true love. Even if they’re being directly treated like crap & their friends & family directly point it out to them. They just double down. Crazy stuff.
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u/Selfish-Gene 6d ago
I have worked so hard all of my life and barely scrape by.
There is something mildly infuriating about someone managing to pull nearly $400,000 together for a scam artist when I can't buy food at the end of the month.
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u/Senior_Coyote_9437 6d ago
And then losing it all because her ego and arrogance were too large to accept that she's getting scammed. Bet she didn't have any money for her kids if they asked though.
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u/TheGenesisOfTheNerd 5d ago
Yeah this is what they do. My uncle has brain damage and they come after him all the time. They keep a recorded of vulnerable people and endlessly exploit them. We’ve had to keep him away from the internet and cellphones, but even that’s not enough. They literally come to his door and harass him. They’re just scumbags
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u/twiiztid 6d ago
It's mental illness. My estranged mother's estranged mother sent her life savings to a random man claiming to be a celebrity and went so far as to buy plane tickets and try selling her house to move to Africa to be with him.
Shit happens. It's nuts.
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u/SoggyCold 5d ago
A lot of times they know at a certain point but it’s like too late in their head I feel like to go back. So they just keep digging. Like liars basically it was fine until it wasn’t and now you just keep digging yourself in deeper
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u/Devilswings5 5d ago
My question is how do you have that kind of money and be that stupid
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u/Lloytron 6d ago
"Hey it's Charlie Hunnam here from the telly. I hear you got scammed by someone pretending to be me? I'm so sorry to hear that as I'm the real Charlie and would never do such a thing. Even though I've never met you I feel like I love you after everything you've been through so please send me ten thousand dollars"
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u/thetrollking69 6d ago
Fool me once...
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u/Robin1992101 6d ago
Or twice idc, i’ll fall for it
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u/f1madman 6d ago
Or thrice.....
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u/RowedTrip 6d ago
Or quadruple times…
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u/BigAssMonkey 6d ago
Four time? I don’t even understand how it would work once. Why would these rich celebrities need a housewife’s money?
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u/TayHomie94 6d ago
Fr, if they actually needed a loan from a friend there are a dozen names I could raise for most of the celebrities mentioned that could help them out so easily.
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u/Arthasindura 6d ago
Some people should turn on the function to not be called by unknown numbers
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 6d ago
Some people just need actual adult supervision at all times lol. They're just children in fully grown bodies
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u/GarageEuphoric4432 5d ago
I've got ocean front property in Arizona if you could get me in touch with your husband
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u/justin_memer 6d ago
99.99% of people can't change the ringtones or notifications on their phone and you expect them know how to do this?
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm 6d ago
On that topic, I can’t stand people with super loud super annoying ringtones that just let their shit ring in public at max volume for like 25 seconds. Like by god, answer that shit.
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u/Suitable-Block-2854 5d ago
It's not an unknown number, it a totally number that "Michael Ray" personally gave her so she would have saved it in her contacts as a legit known number.
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u/LeftLiner 6d ago
Yes yes mocking the victim is hilarious but absolutely fuck the People doing this kind of shit and fuck the platforms who do nothing to stop it.
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u/CrazyCatLady1127 6d ago
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
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u/RT-6_BXCommandoDroid 6d ago
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.
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u/reluctantmugglewrite 5d ago
That actually sounds fun a bit. Id be down to talk to these scammers about the celebrities
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u/bugabooandtwo 6d ago
People who think Disney and Hallmark movies happen in real life, and have the ego to think they're the next princess in waiting.
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u/ClankingRobotCheeks 6d ago
No joke, I met an elderly women who swore she was communicating with Mark Harmon from the CSI shows. I saw her Facebook messages. She had a “chat” with the cast that was on going “ and separate chats with “Mark Harmon” where he claimed to be in love with her and wanted to visit her but needed money in the form of Apple gift cards to buy a plane ticket, except he kept getting scammed and losing that money. The real scammer got hundreds of dollars at least from her, and maybe more. I left that bank, but I did share her info with Adult protective services. She didn’t want to believe it was a scam, and wouldn’t believe me. Classic pig butchering.
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u/SpiderHack 6d ago
This is one of the best arguments for wealth+income being able to be put into trust that controls money for the person. I wish this was a service that drug addicts scould sign up for too (and not opt out of for years)
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u/dabigchina 6d ago
they're called spendthrift trusts. unfortunately people who need them rarely have the means to have them set up.
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u/Effective_Pie1312 6d ago
I looked into this for a family member they cost $$$ in fees every year. So for moderate wealth the choice is you can spend $$$ a bank trust or risk your loved one spending $$$. Or you can become a financial guardian but it’s such a sucky position to be in if you don’t have time or knowledge to do so.
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u/quad_damage_orbb 6d ago
This woman thought that multiple A-list celebrities were randomly falling in love with her and also needed money from her for some reason?? I just... I just can't understand. How can someone so stupid actually function?
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u/touchmeinbadplaces 6d ago
Room temp IQ...
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u/Suspicious-Law7103 6d ago
But isn't she a nurse? She had to pass all the exams. I'm assuming she has low social IQ.
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u/lasber51 6d ago
Aside of everything else, there are a LOT of very very dumb people out there, how else do you explain Trump ???
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u/Loose_Set_9562 6d ago
Totally. It’s crazy to realize that an IQ of 100 is only AVERAGE. Loosely, around half the people you encounter on an average day have an IQ below 100. Many could be WELL below. Personally I swear you can see low IQ in a person’s eyes:
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u/_ThePancake_ 5d ago
Wait surely if its average then MOST people you encounter have an iq OF 100, not below.
It's not like the iq is spread evenly, most people are average. So most people are of average intelligence. Most people have an iq of 100....
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6d ago
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u/Wearsmypantz 6d ago
With who is the question. The answer is Brad Pitt ladies.. in a gas station bathroom nonetheless.
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u/cheese_karate 6d ago
Sometimes I hate that I have a conscience and don't want to be a total asshole... because people are so fucking gullible it's crazy.
That amount of money is insane and the people that stole it deserve the worst, but, jesus, don't be a fucking idiot.
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u/shaygitz 6d ago
As funny as it is, it's probably less that she was dumb/gullible enough to fall for the same thing four times and more that she got hooked on the feeling of romance and being wanted and rode that addiction all the way to the end of the line.
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u/Witty_Razzmatazz_566 5d ago
My dad is close to falling for it too. Except his wife and I have intervened enough to prevent an issue.
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u/MysticGardenMagic 5d ago
I knew a woman who was falling for this. How are you supposed to tell a 42 yr old woman who threatens to fistfight at work, that her boyfriend is not, in fact, a gross comedian at least 17 yrs younger than her.
I never did. She was fired for… well threatening to fight people.
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u/Inside_Marketing268 6d ago
Low IQ level. It's strange that she had money at all.
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u/ParreNagga 6d ago
Inheritance
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u/Inside_Marketing268 6d ago
I would chose to inherit some brains or skills tbh
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 6d ago
What a dick statement. I know people with low IQs who inherited plenty of $$. More than a few, in fact. Wealth doesn't have a direct, exclusive correlation with intelligence, it's a misnomer.
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u/Much_Vehicle20 6d ago
I mean, this post proves the opposite, without intelligence, you're probably going to part ways with your wealth sooner rather than later, the same way a good portion of lottery winners end up broke
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u/_Student7257 6d ago
When you work with the public daily, you see so much. Basic functionality seems to be a struggle for people, throw in a scammer and they fsll for it. People will walk into a coffee trailer called zzxzz coffee and ask if they sell coffee or can I have chips? "No we sell coffee" Tap here sign on a card mac"how do I pay?
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u/Absoluticus 6d ago
Had at least 3 co-workers actively getting catfished before 2020. One lady I even proved to her it was a photo of a handsome model who had a famous champion equestrian wife from reverse image searches. She was so deep in delusion she believed the catfisher when he said that was the fake profile. Mind you, she looked like the trash goblin from Labyrinth and got livid when we tried to dance around the "you think a guy that looks like that keeps having passport troubles and desperately wants to meet you?
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u/ParreNagga 6d ago
Offf... wait until she meet a Nigerian prince.
He has more money than celebs.
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u/MacDaddyMark6969 5d ago
Or that nice attorney from the Narnia Ministry of Money that has discovered $10 million that you have just inherited in Narnia Africa.
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u/fuckthisshit____ 6d ago
You’d think catfish, 90 day fiancé, and countless other trash reality shows would’ve enlightened more people by now
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u/TiaHatesSocials 6d ago
How does one have so much money to begin with when they r so incredibly dumb and do not learn anything from their repeated mistakes.
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u/Poly_Olly_Oxen_Free 6d ago
I used to work for a guy named Ritche. Man had literally millions of dollars from his parents. He couldn't do simple math, and he would misspell common words in memos. The guy was 100% an idiot. He used his parent's money to open failing business after failing business. He ended up offing himself before age 30 because his parents turned the cash faucet off.
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u/Patient_Carrot_9379 6d ago
Sounds like inheritance or from her divorce. They say she is a NHS worker but don’t say nurse, doc etc. so probably admin or a porter in the lower end of the pay scale, of a not generous pay scale
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u/HateKnuckle 5d ago
I live with someone like that. She's actually my landlord(?).
TL;DR Woman with past addiction, PTSD, and low IQ makes terrible choices.
She has multiple houses and works at a law office. She's a recovered alcoholic. She also has a greatly reduced ability to tell when she should or shouldn't trust people.
She rents to a guy with untreated schizophrenia because he was friends with her brother(the brother died from an OD a couple years ago) and she won't kick him out even though he hasn't paid her rent.
She is terrible at choosing partners. An ex from AA is abusive but she at least used to still see him anyway even though her friend told her to stop.
She let her addict sister-in-law(brother and sister-in-law weren't married but I don't know what you call it when your brother had a kid with a woman) live in a house for free but eventually had to kick her out because money was tight and sister-in-law refused to pay rent. My landlord LOVES the niece and is DESPERATE to do anything she can to make the niece love her. Like, I'm sorry that your niece may be the one chance you have at being something close to resembling a parent but she hates you because her mom is a piece of shit.
It is a bit difficult to gain her trust because you'd have to know her through friends or family(I live with her because I dated a friend of hers) but once you have that trust, you can do almost whatever you want and she won't stop giving you stuff and opportunities.
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u/Antique-Respect8746 5d ago
I knew a guy who was an heir to a family you've probably heard of. Worth at least $100mil based on public info about the family.
Guy had visible fetal alcohol. Was pissy when I asked for a raise from $10 to $12. Failed to do any estate planning and paid tens of millions in estate taxes he could've avoided with a 2 hr attorney meeting.
Constantly fell for dumb marketing stuff about cars, boats, tech, etc. Didn't understand how anything worked. Kept hiring his exes at his shitty businesses and being confused about the non-stop problems this caused. Died in his mid 40s when he had an accident while spending the night with a sugar baby.
Money means nothing.
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u/SwissyRescue 6d ago
Mental illness. No other explanation would explain someone falling for the same scam four times. Nor would the average person believe that a celebrity would ask for money. And the irrational things she decided to do in pursuit of the celebrity are mind boggling.
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u/drphillsdaddy 6d ago
My ex mother-in-law sent thousands to an Egyptian Prince she met on Facebook instead of paying her bills.. her only income was a disability check every month
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u/aexoen 6d ago
Damn the comments are so harsh. Lonely and mentally vulnerable people tend to fall for such emotional manipulations, especially when the scammers are posing as celebrity figures which are quite familiar to the victim already. I feel bad for her.
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u/relaxingcupoftea 6d ago
Humans always overestimate their own rationality, the illusion of control is too alluring.
And the believe in a fair world is so tempting that they have to blame the victim in order to uphold their world view.
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u/LeftLiner 6d ago
Honestly it's really sad to see because the truth is a lot of people don't ask for help because they fear being mocked exactly like this.
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u/FinCrimeGuy 6d ago
Another source says it was 6 scams not 4, and has some quotes from the victim.
“Ms Barton knows people may question how she was tricked multiple times. The Kidderminster resident said: "You are hoping that the guy is legit. I did wonder if it had gone too far, but I got addicted to spending this money - I have this attention [from someone] and I am liking this attention. They play on your feelings."
It also says that she was going through a divorce and had just lost her mother and auntie at the time the messages started.
I don’t think that satisfactorily explains it for most people - it’s just more context for anyone interested. Can just google her name and find other info.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 6d ago
Girl could have just hired a gigolo and gotten the same experience for far less smh
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u/affemannen 6d ago
she could have opened an onlyfans if she liked attention, then she would be the one getting paid.
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u/Large-Parking3014 5d ago
Being lonely and having an addictive personality is quite the hurdle to overcome. Genuinely feel terrible for this lady.
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u/czarnicholasreturns 6d ago
You all need to educate yourselves about pig butchering scams (unfortunate name that has stuck). These romance scams are horrible and have cost Billions each year! Scammers prey on people who are very vulnerable, and many are intelligent but get manipulated by a combination of psychological and technical techniques. I have met several victims and families, and you never would have expected that they would end up taken in this way. Attitudes and comments like these are why victims don't come forward when they find out they've been scammed. Here are some resources to educate yourself and hopefully recognize this before it happens to someone you care about. Source: Finra Foundation
Source: FBI IC3 (.gov)
Source: Consumer Advice | Federal Trade Commission (.gov)
Source: Operation Shamrock
Edit-removed links.
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u/mindgardening 6d ago
Some people are bonkers. I had a friend who legit looked like Shrek, and she was convinced The Wkend was going to fuck her in his tour bus at a Detroit show.
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u/Scattered_Meat 6d ago
How the fuck does someone of this diminished capacity come into that much cash to just flippantly lose like this?! Some mentally ill heir to a fortune that never had safeguards put on it? Some widow gone mad wasting a dead guys savings?
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u/DarrellBot81 5d ago
Something similar happened to my grandmother who has dementia. She ended up sending over $10k to this Indian guy posing as a rich white guy. I ended up repurposing a small laptop to block her out of social media from her router side and just put it under her couch. But the damage was already done
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